Code: Astrid's heart
by firelily53
Summary: Astrid had a difficult childhood, parents unknown because she was cast out when young. She went into a coma the days when the super computer were shut down. Awakened when it was restarted she is now going to kadic where she makes friends with the gang, but will she truely be a friend or is a foe hidden inside her? Her choice lies in her heart, so do their lives OddxOCxwilliamxOCxOC
1. Code: new student

_My name is Astrid and Im great full to be going here at_ kadic.

i wrote that down on the student acceptance form just to make a good impression. I can't hurt to start now. my grades aren't bad but adults don't seem to like me. I turned it in to the principle and headed for my first class. looking at the schedule I mutter to myself "Why can't they tell us the room number?" Wiping the silver hair out of my face I try to concentrate. I like to call my hair silver even though it's more white than silver, it makes me feel better to think that then old white hair. I'm slightly taller than average but not by much. I had grey eyes and pale lips. If only I knew who my mother was so I could slap her for giving me such bad looks.

Stepping into a hall with my stuff in my left arm I tried to walk confidently with the white hair that goes past my shoulders mid way to my hip. I hope I could make better impressions with kids my age than with adults. I have never been very impressive to adults it seems, even my own mother cast me out.

As I was pondering that I didn't notice as I bumped into a hurrying student. He had blonde hair pointed up wards with a... purple star in the middle? At least I'm not the only one hear with crazy hair styles. I tried to prepare myself for what he would say but the only thing that came was,

"hey you must be the new kid, at least I have an excuse for being late to my class. Where do you need to go ill be your guide!" He said looking like he had hit jackpot by finding me.

"I need to get to Mrs. Hurts room." I said unsurely "I think at least, whoever made these schedules must really hate new comers."

"oh let me see." He said and took the paper from me, quickly looking over it he said "cool! We have all the same classes that makes the excuse even more believable!" He smile at me and I smiled back. Yep defiantly a better result with people my age. We walked to class together chatting along the way. Finally after exiting the building we were in and entering another we made it too the classroom. However we were very late and already half way through to the lesson.

He opened the door for me and the whole class stared as we walked in. the teacher stopped speaking and glared at the boy. She looked more exasperated and annoyed than mad though, he'. probably a troublesome student.

"Odd Della Robbia why are you late and, oh! Is this the new student we've been expecting?" She said as she noticed me. I smile shyly at her and she smile welcomingly back. "Odd you can take you seat" she said and Odd went to sit in the desk with a vacant seat in it. Them she turned to me. "I am Mrs. Hertz please introduce yourself to the class" finally an adult that can see past what I look like.

i turned towards the class and immediately a couple people stand out. First is a girl with pink hair, she's smiling up at me. Another boy with blonde hair sitting next to the girl looks at me and interested but warm look. Another brown haired boy looked up at me with a grin and waved. Finally I saw a girl with long brown hair and two guys sitting next to her, one looking smart the other looking scornful. The girl herself looked at me with and expression that suggested she was studying what type of moves I would make in a chess game. Looking at all of them I said "hi my name is Astrid Hax. Nice to meet you all"

then the Mrs. Hertz gestured that I could take my seat and Odd indicated I should sit by him. This day was off to a great start I thought as I pulled out the supplies that I needed for my first class.

After the class ended it was time for lunch bur after I picked up my lunch I look around at the cafeteria trying to decide where I should sit. I can't stand here forever or I'd look like a total idiot! bright relief flowed through me as the kids from Mrs. Hertz class waved over to me to come sit down. Smiling I walked over and across from the brown haired kid and next to Odd.

"hi thanks for inviting me to come sit with you guys." I said cheerfully hoping that I was looking at my new friends.

"no problem" said a girl I didn't meet in class. "My names Yumi." She said waving a mini hello.

"My names Astrid." I said. At least she seems as nice as the others, I thought.

"oh yeah we never did introductions." Odd said suddenly having a reason to take his face off his food. That boy was practically a vacuum."I'm Odd" he said

"I'm Ulrich" said the boy with brown hair.

"I'm Aleita" the pink haired girl said softly

"I'm Jeremy " said the blonde hair boy with glasses

"nice to meet you all" I said politely but secretly enjoying learning all of their names.

"so why did you come here to kadic?" Ulrich asked. And I had to think for a moment.

"I guess it was just the closest school." I said plainly, not telling them about the strange pull I felt towards this area, I t felt like something was waiting for me here.

pulling me out of my thoughts Jeremy's computer beeped and everyone got serious. Looking over his shoulder Aleita whispered something in his ear I didn't catch. Suddenly a man in a gym uniform came over to our table.

"need something Jim?" Odd asked sounding a little comprehensive.

"I have to speak with Miss Hax, she forgot to fill out a small category on her entry form. No big deal she'll be back before lunch." He said in a sort of strange voice, who am I to judge the girl with silver hair. Then again I guess its not that big of a deal here.

"okay no problem" I said getting up to follow Jim out to the principles office. Though the others looked concerned about it and Jeremy suddenly type up on his computer, but that's the last thing I saw before exiting the cafeteria. jim apparently was a very speedy walker. But he wasn't leading me to the principles office.

"um, Jim sir? Where are we going" I asked as we took another turn then another, he didn't even answer me. Should I be worried. Instead I took a drastic move considering the fact that he doesn't seem very friendly. At that point I stopped dead in my tracks, he took a few steps before noticing and turning around. "I'm not moving another step until you tell me where your leading me!" I demanded, right to a teacher I didn't even know.

at first he didn't respond, then he just walked up to me grabbed my wrist and started to pull me. "Hey what do you think your doing!? You can't just grab me like that." I said planting my feet firmly on the ground at such an angle that he couldn't move me if he electroc-. Suddenly my thoughts were interrupted my a sharp bolt going through my body, then pain seared at every nerve in my body as my knees buckled and I fell to the ground passing out.

Odds POV

As they walked out of the cafeteria Astrid took one last glance above her shoulder, looking a little worried. Just the. Jeremy started typing on his laptop and said to us, a towers activated thought the signals very faint, as though they were trying to hide it we better get moving.

We through our food in the trash and the trays on the pile then Ulrich said "hey Astrid might be in trouble, couldn't you see the Xana symbol? We should go check on her, Id hate for her to get caught in this." He grimaced as he said it, i think we all wish that we could have normal lives just being friends. "Odd how bout you and me go get her than we'll head to the lab, okay Jeremy?" He asked

"I agree,we all know how Xana has a fancy with hurting people we get involved with. You too make sure she's safe then get back to the factory as quick as you can." Jeremy said

hesitating Ulrich asked will only one lyoko warrior be enough to protect Aleita? If this was supposed to be low key on Xanas part then he'll probably have the tower highly guarded in case we did find out." He's has a point but the more time we waste talking like this, the more chances Astrid could be hurt.

"come one you two don't have much time to get to Astrid, me and Aleita can handle ourselves on lyoko. Get going already" Yumi said, just as worried as the rest of us about Astrid. We waved good bye as we started to run out the cafeteria. Now all we have to do is find them, which considering we have no idea where they went, it's not very reassuring.

"Ulrich where do you think they could've gone?" I asked a little nervous.

"Probably the boiler room, at least Xana seems to be favoring that place." Ulrich said the only lead we have and for Astrid's sake it better be right.

suddenly we heard a scream come from the direction of the boiler room. We ran even harder , just turning the corner to see Astrid collapse on the ground, the spikes of lightning still sparking over her. Surprisingly Xana Jim caught her gently in his arms and picked her up like she was a fragile glass vase, carrying her in his arms he started to walk at a brisk pace.

"Hey!" I yelled "I'm pretty sure you need some type of license to electrocute kids! No? The. It must be illegal!" I said as I ran down the hall with Ulrich at my side.

"You might want to lay off the boiler room passage, your getting easy to track!" Ulrich yelled as we reached Jim. Ulrich maneuvered behind him and hit him in the back, making him drop Astrid. I caught her and ran down the hall a little to set her down, away from the fight.

"Are you okay?" I asked her when her eyes cracked open. It looked like she was trying to mouth "yes" but it was obvious she wasn't. "of course your not" I said spotting a white glow coming from the direction of the factory. "But you'll feel better soon." And then the return to the past engulfed us.


	2. (2) code: addition to the team

Astrid's POV

I woke up, well you could call it waking up, or you could call it starting the whole day over again, along with freaking out.i found myself walking down the hall like I was before I bumped into Odd. Trying to figure it all out, the moment where me and Odd bumped into each other came again.

When he bumped into me I automatically said "hey Odd can I ask you-" then I clasped my hand to my mouth, realizing what I had done. The color seemed to drain from Odd's face realizing too. I quickly explained to him what I remembered and he said he and the others would explain it after class.

We walked down the hall way silently this time, I missed the relaxed laughter and jokes we made the first time we did this.

"hey" Odd said suddenly "I'm sorry if this has effected anything, which it's clear it has. We didn't want you to have to get involved in all of this. I'm sorry." He said then continued walking. I just realized something, he looks guilty was this his fault? What exactly could this secret be that would change Odd'a mood to this?

When we got to class I tried my best to act like I hadn't done this before. Getting through the class wasn't hard, the hard part was watching Odd sit down and whisper into the other's ears. with only four of them it didn't take long for all of them to get the news. One by one they looked back at me with pity. Why would I need pity? Yeah I was electrocuted but I'm better now. I just tried to act like I didn't see them look and focus on the notes i was retaking from yesterday. At least this was good study time.

When lunch came they gestured me to sit with them, I came over again but a little more hesitantly this time. However when I sat down I still smiled.

"so, did Sally fall into the well or did Odd bark for nothing?" I said thinking of an old story my mom used to tell me. We all laugh and it seemed to brighten up the mood a bit.

"okay" Jeremy said "I guess it's about time we told you everything huh?" The others seemed to be okay with him starting out the story however as they went on it got more and more unbelievable. One thing came to my mind when they went through each telling there story of how they were involved with this and what it was all about, these guys were a true blood team.

Once they had finished they gave me a moment to let it all sink in. Lyoko warriors, virtual world, evil foe Xana ? It all sounded so exciting, however I realized how it was their secret and telling me isn't their choice. For all i know this could be the last thing they wanted to do. I mean who would tell me about this?

I took a deep breath "I'm sorry this happened. I know this is your secret to keep, and you probably wish I hadn't caused some disruption. If you want I'll try to forget about it all and leave you to it. I won't interfere. I also wont tell anyone else, I couldn't imagine doing anything but protecting a friend."I said shakily and nervously. They all looked at me surprised, like I had said the least thing they had expected to come out of my mouth.

"don't you realize?" Yumi said "we brought you into this even though you had a right to live a normal life, not having to worry about this. Instead you were dragged into this because of us. Were sorry" she said dismayed like she really had done some act worth of criticism.

"if you wouldn't mind," Ulrich said hesitantly

"we could use another reliable team," said Odd sitting next to me

"and you proved yourself just now by promising to keep the secret." said Aleita looking hopeful

"it's not going to be easy, a lot of times we have to be tough." Jeremy said, wait are really saying

"and we understand if you don't want to but.." Yumi said

Then all of them together looked up at me and said "will you join the lyoko warriors to help us defeat Xana?" Yep defiantly a true blood team. Looking at them I wanted to be apart something, for once in my life.

Steadily and assuredly I told them with a spark of excitement in my eye "i'll do my best to be the best lyoko warrior I can be!"

After that things went by happily, I got to know the true blood team(as I now call them) and I was having a good time...until the next Xana attack.

"When did you say the movie was on?" Odd asked me. We were partners on a science project and the gang all decided to go see a movie together, I think it was something about a thief falling in lobe with a girl and having to repay all hid depts to be together or something. Whatever it's about it'll be fun going to the movies instead of training on lyoko, even though there have been no Xana attacks they needed to show me how to fight and all. Now I'm prepare to be a lyoko warrior.

"let's see, half past we need to get this project done or else we can't do anything tonight, remember?" I answered even though I was excited to go I still have all my priorities straight.

"I don't see why it's such an important project, I mean all we're doing is looking at leaves."

"the reason we are doing this project is to help the animals in the forest."I said passionately

"why do they need our help, they have lived out here they're whole lives can't they protect themselves?" Odd questioned again

I sighed and looked up from my notes "have you ever seen a squirrel here or a deer? That's because this place is lacking in wildlife. Why? Because something was wrong with the environment so they all left, exept for some." I said as a caterpillar inched out onto a lead. "Did you ever think that maybe the factory has something to do with the environment not being ideal? If so then the least we can do is try to make this forest a better place for the animals that still live here." I said whike gazing at the caterpillar, I knew too much about losing a home and trying to adjust to a new one. I can understand why we need to help.

"wow...I never thought about it that way" Odd said dazed a little by my speech. Looking over to me he smiled and said "I never knew you were so passionate about this stuff. It's...cool." He turned abruptly away and I started to mega blush, the things I've only see. On tv shows but never done before.

Suddenly I wanted to tell him all about my past, I had only ever carried that burden myself. It might be good to let someone know. I took a deep breath and said "My mom...through me out when I was three, I made to An orphanage but wouldn't dare tell anyone who my mother was. She..she was never kind to me, the only thing I remember of her are accusing eyes." I stopped for a second and Odd looked at me startled. Maybe at the fact that I would share this with him. I kept going. "I guess I feel so strongly about stuff like this because I know what it feels like to have a bad home and have to adjust to new things, worse places." I finished and looked at Odd his eyes were sympathetic. Eyes i haven't seen since ran to the orphanage.

"I'm sorry you had to go through something like that." Odd said, but I don't want empty words like that, that's what they all said couldnt Odd say something better. I just look at the caterpillar inching it's way back to the trunk of the tree after it's meal. Suddenly I heard Odd's voice, "I'm not very good at this but.. Personally , and I know this might sound mean but, I think I'm actually happy that happened, because without that course of events, you wouldn't be sitting here next to me. That would make me sad."

I looked at him astonished, no one had ever been able to make me feel happy about what happened when I was younger, except now. A few fresh tears slid done my face but they stopped quickly. I looked at him, smiled and said, "Thank you Odd, I..I'm happy too" and for a split second, looking into his eyes the world felt perfect. The we both, simultaniously, took each other's hands and held them. The. We both took them apart and got back to work.

Later

"well at least we finally finished." I said, we had both worked our hardest after the um, not sure how to describe it. now we are going to meet the others. Casually chatting along the way, but by the time we reached the meeting place we were bot laughing so hard our socks would have come off if we didn't have shoes others were giving us strange looks when we came though.

"hey you two! Hurry up the movie will start any minute. And we still have to get there!" Yumi called to us, they must have been waiting there for a while.

once we caught up to them I forced the rest of the giggles down and asked "where are the rest. Did Jeremy and Aelita not finish their project?" I found that hard to believe, but then again Jeremy isn't the nature type.

"no they went ahead to get tickets, a lot of people are going tonight" Ulrich said tapping his foot, obviously ready to go.

"ah yes the inpatients of Einstein. Let's go it's getting dark already." Odd said and with that we walked to the theater, laughing as me and Odd shared our jokes.

Odd's POV

When we finally got to the theater the sun was setting, that's unusual. Normally it doesn't set till an hour after now. But walking with Astrid next to me gave me a strange but good feeling, something I hadn't felt with any other girl. Suddenly I felt a jolt. My record! Now that Astrid's here I've dated every girl in our grade except her! But would she even want to date me? What I said in the park I truly meant it.

"Something wrong Odd" Astrid asked A worried look on her face as she watched me. How did she do that? I guess it's not hard to see when I'm troubled.

Covering it up I said "I'm just worried about how money we have to get popcorn and drinks, that and if it'll last the whole movie.." Putting on a fake thinking face, I wonder if this will fool her.

"there's Odd always worrying about food then if we will even get into the movie." Ulrich said and the rest of us laughed a bit. But Astrid still looked at me with those worrying eyes, some how I don't think I want to break her heart, or pull any ladies man move on her. I just smile and reached over to squeezed her hand without the others noticing. her frown turned into a soft smile with warm eyes. Shes been hurt all her life. She deserved to be spared a broken heart.

Finally making it inside we spotted Aelita and Einstein waiting for us with the tickets. yikes, they looked a little annoyed.

"hey they finally showed up but it took a while to just get inside of this place there's such a big line." Yumi said indicating the mob still trying to get in. "It took us years to explain we were getting the the tickets from friends."

"Im sorry we kept everyone waiting" Astrid said "I'll go attack the line to get us popcorn and drinks, just tell me what you want!" She offered holding up her wallet, she couldn't mean to pay for all of us?. Surely enough a second later she said "mind you I couldn't pay for it all if I wanted to." She told us, I'll have to ask her where she gets her money from anyway? If she doesn't have parents.

"Thank you, that seems more convenient then us all ordering separately." Jeremy said and we all handed her ten dollars, to each get a large popcorn and drink.

"Okay I'll be right back." He said then looked at the line. "Then again maybe not." Then she smiled and walked towards the line.

We chatted a little while she was in line and each took turns going to the bathroom. But when she was half way to the counter we heard a beep from Jeremy's bag. "Oh no!" I said, not tonight of all nights.

"well Jeremy is it an attack from Xana? He's been quiet for a while so I wouldn't doubt it." Ulrich said as Jeremy pulled out hi laptop and kneeled to set it on his knee.

"well it looks like Xana is at it again. We better hurry, we don't know how he will attack." Jeremy said packing up his laptop and heading for the door.

"wait." Yumi said "i don't think we should tell Astrid. We don't want her to bump into William." we all stopped to think about it. Then Aelita turned to me and said,

"take the tickets, you and Astrid could have a good time tonight, just tell her we were busted cause we never finished our project, okay?" She looked sad, I guess cause she and Astrid were becoming good friends, we all were with Astrid.

" But what would she say if she found out? I don't think she would be too happy." I said, I don't really like the idea of lying to here, especially if she puts all her trust in us.

"We have to try, she can come next time," Jeremy said, everyone else seems okay with this but me.

"okay but be careful and don't worry about calling if you need back up." I said finally giving in and they left just as Astrid was getting to the counter. Luckily there was no line after her so I ran up to tell her.

" Okay I'll take six large-" she was saying when I interrupted her.

"Actually the others just got busted for not finishing their project. they have to leave but we can still stay and watch the movie." I told her a her face fell but lightened back up,when I suggested we stay. Instead of getting the kiang order of food we just got three large popcorn a and three large root beers, it's a pretty long movie.

"this place is crowded!" Astrid exclaimed as we finally found a spot to sit together. We were probably in the worst spot ever but Astrid did t seem to care. Most of the movie went by without a hitch, but after the second inter mission something went wrong.

The screen fluttered, the image going on and off when finally it stopped and a Xana symbol appeared on the screen. People started complaining and someone came in to try and fix it.

"Odd what should we do, it doesn't look like anything is happening-" that last part came out as a scream when the walls exploded and wires came to life around us. Astrid reached up to her neck to rub something, probably a necklace. Then she got up to help everyone get out of the theater, in the meantime I called jeremy up on my phone.

"Jeremy we have a problem. It's kinda getting serious over here! If you could hurry up?!" I yelled in the phone to make my voice be heard over all the screaming. Just as the screaming was dying down I could here Jeremy's voice through the phone.

"we have a situation down here too, get to factory as fast as you can!"

"roger Einstein!" I said through the phone. Spotting Astrid I warn over to her.

"Hey Odd are they close yet?" She asked getting the last person out of the theater.

"They need our help, we better hurry" I said but just as we started to walk out, the wires started spitting out electricity and diving at me. For some reason they staid away from her. Behind me there was one I couldnt dodge fast enough and preparing myself for the shock I heard Astrid scream and felt the heat in the air as she whacked the wire away from me, electricuting herself.

Astrid's POV

I screamed, seeing the wire I couldn't let Odd get hit by it and without thinking I grabbed it And tossed it down. now I was sitting on the floor cradling the burn.

"Astrid are you okay?" Odd nearly screamed, he was worried. Instead of staying there I got up and smiled at him.

"let's get to the factory." I said and walked to the door. All of the wires had suddenly gone silent. Stunned Odd blinked a few times, thinking about something then followed me. We ran out the theater ignoring th police tht had showed up. We thought the way back Would be safe but soon other wires started to follow us, except these didn't have bolts shooting out of them.

As we were dodging them Odd said, "are you sure your okay, that's a pretty nasty burn." it's good of him to worry but it'll get us nowhere.

"I'm fine, let's just get back as quick as we can to help the others-" yet again I was interrupted but this time a wire tripped me and I skidded across the concrete sidewalk tearing my knees.

"aaaaah!" I screamed, and Odd rushed over to me.

"I don't think you should go to the factory." Odd said picking me setting me on my feet.

"I'm fine!" I snapped then realizing that I had I quickly said "sorry, I'm just really worried about the others."

"I am too." Odd said his eyes softening, "look I haven't been honest with you, we already knew about the activated tower, I t was activated while you were in line to get the snacks..." He said cautiously while examining my knees, in which blood was trickling out, it was a pretty bad scrape. And just before I could get angry about them tricking me he said "we thought it would be unfair to you, especially since we dragged you into this, besides you were really excited about the movie. I'm sorry"

I looked up at his eyes and could tell he was more than sorry, "it's okay I forgive you, I'm sorry I caused you trouble." and with all things forgiven we smiled at each other for a few glorious seconds.

The way back to the factory was a nervous and painful run with the scraped knees. excusing the few parts like Odd carrying me while we slid down the wires from the ceiling of the factory, and holding hands when we jumped over the sewer corners. We opted out on use skateboards since their was a chance of falling off.

Once we were in the elevator Odd ask me, "you ready to see the real thing?"

Holding up my hand I said "I've seen the real thing, now I want to beat the virtual one."

when the door open we both simultaneously said "Send us in!"


	3. Code: not afraid!

Odd's POV

They were startled by our voices and turned to look at us.

"Odd Astrid you scared us get to the scanners." We both nodded and waited for the door to close.

"wait Astrid your hurt.. " Yumi said looking at her hand and knee

"It's okay, I'll be fine we need to go help Ulrich and Aelita," she said looking confidant, I couldn't help but want to gaze into her eyes longer but we had to get going.

As we went down the short distance from one floor to another I smiled at her, the great reassurance I could've gotten was that smile. I've don't this plenty of times before but she hasn't and I don't want her to be taken over by Xana. I wonder if she knows how much I love that smile, or if she's just that beautiful.

Once we got down to the scanners we both got in our separate scanners. "Ready" I mouthed

"oh yeah" she mouthed back I swear she looks more dangerous than Ulrich when we accuse him of loving Yumi.

"scanner Astrid, scanner Odd, transfer Astrid, transfer Odd, Virtualization!"

When we landed on lyoko she didn't have any health point deductions from real world injuries so that's good. She was and Eskimo, her outfit was a skin dress with a hood, fur around the edges. Her silver hair was tied in a braid and rested in her hood. A quiver of arrows and her bow were strapped around her back, and she had hidden knives that were attached to her wrist and toes. her sleeves only came down to her elbow but she had wrist guards in which the blades come out of. She is defiantly a formidable foe.

Before Jeremy could tell us where we needed to go she was already running off east. "Wait Astrid-" I called but she turned back smiled and said,

"I saw something blow up this way behind the ice." Then she turned around and kept going.

"shes right theyre that way just behind the ice pillars" Jeremy said and I ran after Astrid. Once we got around the rocks we saw Ulrich devirtualized and Aelita being pursued by William, the schypozoa and a few blocks.

"Astrid stay away from William and the schypozoa, I'll take care of those, just get Aelita to the tower"I warned her, I don't want the schypozoa to her as well as turned to me and nodded then shot an arrow dead center of a block, causing it to explode. This also got every one else's attention.

"Aelita Astrid will get you to the tower!" I called over to Aelita shooting a few lazier arrows to get Williams attention off Astrid, who he was staring at with interest. No way are we letting you get her too!

Astrid's POV

In the ice sector its warmer than you'd expect, luckily the Eskimo outfit didn't give me any warmth so I'm not a boiling mess in this thing.

Thanks to Odd's distraction of shooting laser arrows at ,I'm guessing, William is was able to avoid the schyphozoa and make my way over to Aelita. Once I got to her I smiled and shot an arrow at the last block unluckily that stirred the schyphozoa and the strange squid thing started to come near us.

"Aelita lets hurry over to the tower" I said being cautious of the that thing.

"right" she said and we made a dash for the tower. We went into a strange waterfall cave. It looks like the schyphozoa might have a tough time getting through the opening I thought as we jumped over some ice stepping stones, as we waved through tunnels I occasionally looked behind to see the schyphozoa following us. Finally we popped out of the tunnel system to see the tower close by.

"Let's go" I said to Aelita, she nodded and we both started running towards the tower. Behind us the schyphozoa came out of the tunnel and went after us again. I turned my head to see that Odd and William had followed us through the tunnel as well, Odd occasionally shooting arrows at William. I turned back to the tower.

Just as we were almost there I heard William say "super smoke!" And suddenly a black maas of smoke came into my vision, racing with us. While running i notched my arrow and was about to say a warning to Aelita I was knocked to the ground with William tumbling with me. What type of villain pulls a trick like that? I though as once more today I was skidding across the ground.

Once we stopped I pushed him off of me and got to my feet, not waiting to introduce myself and being careful not to let myself get capture my the schyphozoa. Then as I started to take off I felt a hand reach around my ankle and I fell again. Getting annoyed I tried to pry the hand off my leg but I saw Aelita go into the tower. At least I don't have to worry about that.

I smacked my bow down on Williams hand so he would let go. however as I was about to make a final dash to the tower he grabbed my wrist instead. " your much more careful than this one was, and also harder to catch. But don't worry you'll be joining our team soon yet." He said in a computerized voice, I assume was Xana based.

"Odd!" I called over to him for help as the schyphozoa was reaching us, he was still farther behind and wouldn't make it in time. I reached back to get another arrow but my stock was gone.

"Astrid your blades!" Odd called looking very worried, I guess being controlled by Xana is worse than I thought .

"the towers deactivated, return to the past now!" Jeremy said just as I was slashing the schyphozoa's arms that were reaching out at me.

Suddenly we were back at the entrance of the school property, getting ready to go to the movie. I automatically slouched to the ground, realizing my hand was still burned and my knees still bloody. Along with a roughed up out fit. The others immediately shot out there hands to support me. Odd looked at me with shock and worry in his eyes. And Jeremy and Aelita came panting around the corner. Once they saw me they both rushed to help me as well. Soon after some moaning and complaining on my part. My knees and hands were patched up after going to the infirmary, using the story I tripped with my cell phone and hitting the ground it had given me a nasty shock. Exhausted I was curled up in a blanket sitting on the bed with my back against the wall in me and Aelita's room.

"But why didn't she return to the past properly?" Yumi wondered out loud.

"if you think about it, it coordinates with her not being effected by it earlier." Ulrich said

" Didn't she get burn marks from the first electric shock?" Jeremy asked

"no she didn't have any burn marks from that." Odd said

"maybe all electric shocks are reversed for her just not actual injuries." Aelita said. holding my left hand, the one with out the burn mark. We were all hanging out here trying to figure out why or how I didn't get.. Reversed or whatever from return to the past. I didn't join in on the conversations though. I was to busy thinking about what that guy William had said. "You'll join us soon yet." That means he wants me to join them, but he also said I was harder to catch, which might incline he won't mind a challenge to get me.

My worrying must have shown because Odd then looked up at me and said, "don't worry, we heard what William said, and we won't let you be possessed by Xana." he smiled at my shocked expression and I realized every one was smiling at me. My worried thoughts vanished at the thought of having such good friendships. And I smiled back one of my purest yet.

**Hey thank you guys for leaving a review and please continue to read for I have more in plan for the true blood team as I call them. Thanks again!**


	4. (3) code: happy birthday!

Astrid's POV

After that attack we only got the usual attacks from Xana, my skill was improving and we hadn't seen William for a while which was good. At least I thought so.

"If we haven't seen them for this long I'm worried that something's up. He could be power charging for something." Ulrich said as we walked to the factory together, the others were already there but long story short Jim wasn't too happy about having a shoe to the face.

"I get what your saying but that could be good for us too, we can handle all of Xana's attacks but this way we can, or at least I can, fine tune our skills. That way we'll be more prepare for any attack he throws at us." I said, talking with Ulrich was fun but not as much fun as Odd was. We almost always go into some laughing fit, that or we would be quietly talking with each other in a happy mood. Either is fine to me.

"ah forget it, I took a math test earlier my brains already fried." Ulrich said giving up on the discussion as soon as we reached the port hole.

I giggled "I know about that math test I'm in your class genius." I said smiling as we climbed down the ladders.

"ah yes tease the poor tired out Ulrich because he sucks at math, any way you know what Einstein had planned for us anyway?" He asked me, I didn't have a clue.

"nope, He only bothered to text me to "cum 2 factory quicly" " I told him cutting the words short where the abbreviation comes in.

"did he put abbreviations in there?" Ulrich asked, noticing how I said it.

"oh of course not I just felt like putting those in" I said as I tenderly swung down on the ropes. My hand was healing but I was still a little burned there.

We walked over to the elevator and pushed the button, going down I wondered what we were doing. I mean wouldn't Jeremy tell us what we're doing. It doesn't seem urgent else he would have rushed us since we were coming late. Mind thoughts were interrupted when we entered the room and no one was there.

"Where are-" I started to say but was interrupted by confetti poppers and party horns. "What?"

"Happy Birth Day Astrid!" Every one yelled as they came out from hiding, yes I know they're aren't many places to hide, it was dark, don't judge me.

"my birthday?"I said i never really celebrated my birthday when I was young. no one wanted to be my friend and they adults all hated me.

"yeah you know the one day of the year that you just happened to be born. Ring a bell?" Yumi said jokingly.

"We got you presents." Aelita said holding up a few boxes.

"I, thank you." I said dumbly they all looked at me smiling and I realized how great my friends are. I was about to say something when the mood was dampened by.

"Who has birthday parties in a place like this!?" Said a girl stepping out of the elevator. Odd stepped up beside me and I could've sworn some one groaned.

" It's not like she would appreciate it any ways, she's an orphan probably never even had a birthday party." She said, I was about to retort something when I remembered that it was true, I haven't ever had one before.

"stop that Sissi, your not apart of this, how did you even get here?" Ulrich complained, I can see why, she doesn't seem like the ideal person to hang out with.

"Ulrich darling if only you would hang out with me I could show you how to have a real birthday party." She said and regaining my attitude I quickly sneezed.

Every one looked at me as I coughed as well. "Oh I'm so sorry," I said between coughs, "I think i might be allergic to totally not going to happen." The last part said in a serious tone. Every one else started laughing like maniacs.

"keep laughing or I'll tell every one what your afraid of!" She threatened and every body looked at me for what I would say next. I knew this trick and it won't work on me.

"oh no! You know about that!? I've never told anyone about my idontcarephobia!" I said in a mock terror tone, and every started laughing even harder now.

Calming his laughter Ulrich said " Sissi like I said earlier you shouldnt have come now go.

"Ulrich dear I'll only go if you walk me back to my room." Sissi said with a celebratory smile, like she won something. I hate it when people act cocky before they have the right

"You really don't know anything do you?" Yumi said getting as annoyed as everyone else, "your never going to get Ulrich if you keep acting like you are now!"

"if your so popular with him then why aren't you his girl friend, hmm?" Sissi said finally hitting the soar spot I didn't want her to.

"look if you can't say anything nice then you won't make it any where in life." I said desperate to get off the subject of Ulrich and Yumi.

"What do you know about life? For most of yours you had none." Sissi said finally crossing my line. "It's no wonder your parents hate you."

"Hey stop trying to pull every body into your gloom!" Odd said stepping in front of me as if to protect me. My knight, with his purple shirts.

"Your crossing the line and I'm not talking the one you normally cross." Yumi said also stepping towards Sissi. My friend with her great advice.

"try leaving us alone for once." Jeremy said, my friend with a great heart.

"You don't effect who we'll be or what we will grow to do." Aelita said stepping up along with Odd and Yumi, my friend with a loving aura.

"This is the last time I will put up with you." Ulrich said, the last one to step up, is my friend with burning loyalty.

"hmmph! I can only imagine why Astrid's mom would want to drop dead, the people she hangs out with are losers without style." Sissi said while going up on the elevator. what does she mean by dropping dead.

"Wait what do you mean by see why she would drop dead?" I asked before the elevator door closed.

Just as they were closing Sissi smiled seeing she had interested me, "Don't forget my daddy is the principle, I can have access to any students personal information if I wanted!" She said as the door closed and she went up and instead of feeling joyful I was shocked. I never even bothered to figure out who my mother was, they always looked at me with pity saying i had been tossed out.

Jeremy suddenly walked over to the computer and typed for a few minutes while we all stood there in silence. Soon enough he turned to me and said, "I was able to find your mom on here and it's true, she died a few years after you were born. I'm sorry"

I just stood there in silence thought for a few seconds, noticing that every one was looking at me, but not saying anything until finally I said, "Who cares any way, I had never planned to contact her anyway. I was always told I was cast out by the adults at the orphanage, so why should I care about what happens to a random person?" but even as I said it I know it wasn't true. Cold tears fell from my eyes and hit the ground, not even bothering to hide it.

Then Odd came over and wrapped his arms around me. "It's okay to cry and be sad about it. We are your friends and we will support you. Just try to feel better soon before I start to miss your smile." He said and looking at him my tears dried and I nodded.

Smiling "Thanks Odd." was all I could say in this moment of weakness, cushioned by friends.

"hey we still have your birth day party, you want to keep going?" Yumi asked and I looked up at her and nodded. And with that we went on with the party. I can honestly say it's the best party I've ever had, since it is my first. It was fun and I got a drawing pad, so,e colored pencils, around $20, and a cool electric blue jacket.

"thanks I really love these." I said sitting on the floor looking at the gifts.

"it's no problem, Sissi was right, in a way, we wanted to make this a special first birthday party with us." Aelita said smiling warmly at me. They understood and they were even trying to make the pain of never having one before better. I looked at all of them smiling and laughing, Odd with a smudge of cake on his cheek.

I walked up to him and used my thumb to wipe it up, then I turned to the others and said, "I would go through my child hood again plenty of times, as long as I can be your friends."

Then every one came up and we had a group hug. Well more of a... Huddle? I dont care I, just so happy to be here. We stayed for a little while longer but around nine we decided to go back to our dorms, and Yumi had to explain to her parents why she was late.

"Actually me, Ulrich, and Jeremy need to pick something up from Mrs. Hurts class, you two can go back together." Aelita said suspiciously, I'm think something is up. Because just as we were walking away I caught Odd flashing a smile to the others. We kept walking for a few minutes, chatting but not really going to our dorms.

Finally when we reached some benches he turned to me and said "I have a special present from me to give you, I'm not sure if you'll like it and it might not be you type but- here" he said handing me a small packet and if I'm not imagining to blushing at little.

Odd's POV

I was so nervous when I gave her the gift. I had gotten her a silver locket with a picket of both me and her hanging out a few weeks ago, and on the other side their was a picture of the whole team. There was a small sapphire on the front of the locket, which was the only part of it the was pure anything. my grandmother gave it to me when I sent an email to her asking for advice on what to get her.

"Odd I, I love it!" She said looking at me with that cute smile on her face, but some how I don't think it was the special necklace that was the cause the perfect smile on her face. It seemed to me that it was the fact that I gave it to her at all. " Hey Odd can I tell you something?" she asked with a cute blush on her face. This whole time I had Known I had a little on mine but I was hoping she wouldn't notice.

"you can ask me anything." I said with a warm smile on my face. " in fact I need to ask you something too. But you can go first."

" okay, I was wondering if, would you..." she looked a little blustered like it was hard to get out this last part. I nodded encouragingly and she kept going, "go on a date with me?"

The words shocked me out of my skin. The same question I was going to ask her just came out her mouth. My face was tingling and my hesitation seemed to scare her.

"If not it's okay, I can understand I mean-" she said looking embarrassed but I interrupted her.

" No Astrid I was going to ask you the same thing. I was just so nervous I just didn't know how to tell you. I would love to go on a date with you." I said quickly smiling as if my heart would burst, seeing her face only made me want to smile harder. her eyes lit back up and her smile was legendary. I only hope her smile will stay like this forever. Actually I just hope she doesn't find out about the other girls in our grade. I thought abOut that with a sudden sink of my heart. I didn't let it show to Astrid but I thought about it as we chatted. What would she think if she found out? She would think that dating and hurting that many girls would be awful. Although most of them I didn't hurt, they broke up with me.

"So I'll see you tomorrow." Astrid said smiling at me. somehow we had made it back to the dorm quicker than I had thought. I wished her a good night and headed back to my dorm. Now all I have to do is think of a special date for us to go on.

Astrid's POV

Aelita came back to the dorm around the time that I did so I wonde. What could have taken so long. The one thing that I had forgotten to do was ask Jeremy what my mother's name was.

"hey what's up?" Aelita asked when she got back only a few minutes after I did.

" Nothing Odd gave me this necklace though, I don't suppose you guys knew about this did you?" I said smiling as I fingered the treasure from Odd. This will always be more special to me than anything else, I vowed. Except maybe a wedding ring. At the thought I giggle then turned to look at Aelita as she answered my question.

"we were there for about a half an hour to an hour and he just asked us to let you two be alone on the way back. We had almost forgotten when the time came. I'm glad you like it, it's pretty." She said looking at it happily, maybe even a little longingly too.

" Don't worry, I'm sure Jeremy will give something special too." I said teasingly and she laughed and through a pillow at me. With that we had an all out war. until someone came around to ask what we were doing. Laughing crazily we stood their putting our room back together. After we had finished that and taken a shower we decided to hit the sack.

" Good night." I said yawning, but not ready to go to sleep yet.

" Good night." She said back, the poor thing had been yawning like a sloth for thirty minutes. As soon as we turned off the lights she was out. I however pulled our my laptop and messaged Jeremy hoping he was still awake

_you awake?_

_yeah doing some research on Germany._

_school project?_

_yeah_

_anyway do you remember what my mothers name was?_

_yeah it was Mary Hax. Why?_

_i just wanted to do a little research on her, to figure out who she was._

_okay just don't keep yourself up about this, whats important is you have a family with us now okay?_

_thanks Jeremy, Ill always remember that_

_good, night_

_night_

After that our messaging concluded and I looked up a little about my mother. As soon as I was about to give up hope something happened. The screen flickered and then the whole thing powered down leaving me in the dark.

"just great" I muttered to myself, I could've sworn it had nearly full battery I charge it every night. The screen flickered again, I nearly screemed as the Xana symbol appeared on my lap top. Scrambling out of bed I rush over to Aelita and wake her up.

"what is it?" She said groggily being woken up at 12:00am isn't fun, I know that.

" Look at my laptop" I said pointing towards the bewitched laptop that now had the computery-like smoke coming from it.

"Oh no! Quick call Odd and Ulrich, I'll call Jeremy." Aelita said as she quickly dialed jeremies number and got out of bed, retreating as far away as we could from the laptop and at the same time keeping an eye one it we called the guys.


	5. Code: four towers?

Odd's POV

The hard part wasn't getting to their rooms, it wasn't having to figure out what to do. It was getting up at midnight for a Xana attack! After trying to take over our lives and also messing them up so much he just had to throw in an attack at midnight! The only good thing about this was being balls to see Astrid's face again tonight.

We snuck out of our dorms and met up with Jeremy out side, then we waited for the girls to come. Waiting out in the open like that wearing pajamas was not fun. The only one who seemed to think it was fun was Xana.

When they finally got there Astrid was carrying the laptop and Aelita was walking a distance away from her on the other side of the laptop, I'm guessing for precautionary measures.

"You guys okay?" Astrid asked us carefully holding her own problem but still worrying about others. She was cute in her pajamas, she was wearing a pink shirt with wolf head on it, and baby blue pants that matched her tigers eyes. She was also wearing cute slippers with wolf or dog ears on it. Judging by her almost forced smile, she wasn't too happy to be out here either.

"yeah we made it out okay but I'm freezing my lyoko tail off, let's get going." I said indicating the way to the factory. We trudged on trying to be as silent as we can so no one sees us.

"Should we call Yumi?" Ulrich asked holding his phone in his hands.

"We should call her and see if she can come but she would get in the most trouble for coming out here so we shouldn't pressure her." Astrid said with a caring face on.

"right we'll do that at the factory, for now shhh!" Jeremy said we were almost at the port hole but wouldn't feel comfortable until we were away from prying ears at the factory.

Soon we were sliding down the wires at the top of the factory. then we ran into the elevator and anxiously went down. Astrid was still holding the laptop like it was a death machine, and even though the others were standing as far away from the laptop as possible, I stayed next to her. She looked terrified and needed all the comfort she could get. She turned to me and smiled, the first real one she had tonight. I noticed she still had the necklace on, I hope she likes it.

"So what exactly do you plan on doing with the thing? And why have we come here?" Ulrich asked, frankly I'm as confused as he is. I don't know what to do with Astrid's computer.

"Well to be blunt I don't know either, i wasn't able to turn on my computer for some reason so I have no idea if there's an activated tower or not." Jeremy said as we walked into the main room, looks like we are all stump about this one.

"If there is a tower then we will simply go and deactivate it." Aelita said as if it wasn't a big deal to be here at midnight.

" I'll call Yumi now." Ulrich said and we all quieted as Jeremy sat down at the computer and Ulrich called Yumi.

"Its what I thought, there are three activated towers on lyoko." Jeremy said and we all hung our mouths open, well I did the others just looked shocked. "I thought there might be because my computer wouldn't turn on, it was crashing because of he data coming in."

" Yeah you better try to get here quickly, apparently we have a situation...okay bye." Ulrich said as he hung up the phone, then looked to us, "She'll try to sneak out as soon as she can but her parents are watching a ,very, long movie...apparently"

"What should we so with the laptop?" Astrid asked, we all looked at it but no one said anything.

"I guess we should just keep it wrapped up like that." And just as I said that the electric cloud thing that I've never come up with a good name for came out And went straight for Astrid.

"hey! Aaaah!" she shrieked as she dogded the electris cloud once but the second time it went right for her. I caught her as she dropped and got a small bolt going through me but I still managed to get her safely to the ground. She strained for thirty second while jeremy ordered Aelita and Ulrich to go to the scanner room. After that the thing came out and hovered above, she cracked her eyes open and I was about to clobber the thing with a handy dandy plastic bottle left over from the party when it went straight back to her.

"Astrid!" I yelled as she thrashed out again, consumed in the mass of the electricity monster. Panicking I tried to think of a way to get the thing off her.

As I wildly looked around, desperate to do something, Jeremy said "Is she okay? or will we have to do this without you two?" He asked the answer I hope wasn't the latter.

"hang on, let me just get this off of her." As I said it the thing came out of her again, her body went slack out of exhaustion from fighting that thing so long. I ran over to her to try to block her from it but eventually it found a way around. Screaming shortly as it went back in I thought of something. "Jeremy it's trying to weaken her, if this keeps up she'll have no strength to resist it, having been on lyoko or not." I said gritting my teeth, holding her hand despite the shock I was getting.

"That would also explain the extra towers for reinforcement, and the time of mild attacks, he must have been preparing." Jeremy said " but luckily we already have one tower, Xana hasn't sent any guest to greet us this time."

Then Yumi walked in and she gasped when she saw Astrid beimg attacked by the thing. She was about to run over to help when Jeremy said "just get to the scanners we already have two towers now, it seems they are all located close together." With that Yumi wish me luck on helping Astrid and climbed down the ladders.

its bound to come out soon. I ran over to the elevator and pushed the button the ran back over to Astrid. Just as the door opened tithing came out and I set Astrid down in the elevator, then I blocked the door till it closed. Stuck in the room it was about to go through the walls when I grabbed a plastic trash bag and trapped him in there. I quickly put more on until it was to thick to cut with a plastic knife, then held it down.

Jeremy looked over and said "that was quick thinkng Odd I'm surprised."

"haha, the one thing I know about this stuff is that plastic is a great insulator." I said proud of myself.

"well you might want to make sure Astrid is okay." Jeremy said as I was already pushing the button. 'We should be safe anyway we already have the third tower down."

"Alright." I said as I waited for the elevator to come.

Astrid's POV

Have you ever been attack by a electricity monster thing? Well not only does it drain your energy and hurt like freaking seizure, it also seriously lowers your morale spirit. The whole time it's trying to convince you to give in, even if I wanted to I could feel a barrier somewhere inside of me. I guess it's the protection going to lyoko gives me. The only comfort I got through seemingly endless pain was Odd bonding my hand. For some reason feeling my hand in his dulled the pain.

When the pain actually stopped my weight felt lifted and though to exhausted to even open my eyes, I could feel I was moving. Now I'm moving again but this time it feels different. Then it stops, I managed to open my eyes and I saw someone bend down and pick me up. Then I hear "Jeremy you have the fourth tower yet?" Odd asked. Odd was the one who stopped it, and in his arms I let my eyes close and my head rest against his chest. When did he get this strong?

my thoughts were interrupted by Jeremy saying "we do now, do we need a return to the past?" Then in heard faint clanking noises, or something at least, then footsteps.

"Getting back inside my house will be a real pain, for all I know they could've already found out-" Yumi was saying before something started ringing and that's all I remember before I blacked out the remainder of the pain fading from my body.

I would've like to have woken up in my bed that morning or I don't know somewhere with a carpet. But of course I have to wake up by face planting on the floor during the earlier party we were having. Raising my head I got up on my knees with out opening my eyes.

When I did crack my eyes open I instantly got a splitting headache, and every one had rushed over for the second time to help me. "Are you okay, Xana has never tried to repeatedly attack someone like that before." Aelita said in a worried voice. i don't want to be pitied or looked over anymore. I wish I could've helped instead of bottom attacked by that thing.

"yeah, I'll manage." I said grimacing as I tried to stand up but the others insisted on me sitting down for a few minutes.

"I think you should rest for a while, you look like you need it." Yumi said and without any complaints I settled next to the wall and closed my eyes. Odd sat next to me and the others quietly whispered I caught a few bits and pieces but I couldn't put anything together. After I had had a good enough rest I walked back to my room with the others beside me. I have good friends that'll carry me if I need but push me forward when I can, I thought, great full for my friends that I have.

The comforting thoughts took me back to my room and into the bed. I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow not even pulling up the blankets. The others settling in the room to talk.

** I want to thank you guys who are keeping up with the story! I'm really enjoying it so far so I'll keep going for a while. I really hope you guys like these and please leave any suggestions that you have. Thank you :) XD**


	6. (4) Code: ice skates

A week later I had tried my best to forget about the whole incident and just focused on the good things. I loved my party and now would wear my new electric blue jacket every day because let me tell you, it's cold! I also carried around my drawing pad and colored pencils. The last thing I always kept was Odd's necklace. These things were the first gifts I had ever gotten and they made me feel happy whenever I look at them.

I thought about all this during math class right before lunch. ignoring the lesson I really should be paying attention to. When we are Finally dismissed I head for lunch chatting casually with the others. Apparently Jeremy had some good news to share with us.

"If you have to run all the way to your room to grab your laptop that you forgot, then forget to bring it back with you resulting in you having to run back again, how am I the bad one for not paying attention in one class?" I asked, apparently it's not hard to notice your not paying attention when you don't notice the teacher so many times that she gives up.

"if you think about it I was at fault twice you were at fault so many more times I think the teacher almost cried.." Jeremy said trying his best to not laugh

"Alright I get it, I get it. Do you think Mrs. Hurts likes chocolate?" I asked

"I don think you'll be able to bribe her out of despair." Ulrich said mockingly

"hey I think despair is a little harsh, besides you have no room to talk." I said dangerously, i know for one thing he wouldn't want me to bring up his grades.

"who one the zombie race?" Odd said randomly, smiling at me. I know he's trying to cheer me up with One of his jokes, but I don't need to be cheered up anyways.

"who?" I asked pretending just to humor him, secretly I really enjoy his jokes, especially when he makes ones to cheer me up.

"It was _dead even_!" He said laughing and I giggle while the others just shook their heads. The cheesy jokes seemed to only make me feel warm on the inside.

we reached the cafeteria and chose our food, then we sat down and waited for Yumi. There was a pleasant mood hanging and no one talked to disturb it. Once Yumi grabbed her food, she was a little behind us because her teacher gave everyone a worksheet at the end of class, she came and sat down on my right. I smiled at her and she smiled warmly back, the only thing that could make this day right was, of course, the small thing that lead to a Xana attack that lead to disrupting the day.

"hey guys sorry I'm late, you got a letter Astrid." She said handing me a small envelope with a lump in it. "I picked it up on ghe way here, they asked me to give it to you. I think it might be a birthday present." Eagerly but cautiously I opened it inside was a card and a little paper wrapped package. I open the card and reaD what was inside.

"happy birthday." I said plainly, looking around the rest of it. It was a small white card with nothing on the front and only the two words happy birthday in it. I looked at the envelope but the address wasn't anywhere I could figure out.

"that's Odd" Odd said, inside I laughed a little but I was too caught up to think about it. Instead I set the card and envelope down and picked up the small package. When I opened it a chain fell out, it's a necklace. I pulled out the necklace and was shocked when I saw it, touching m neck to make sure mine was still there, this was a locket that looked exactly the same. The colors are different though, this one is gold but the other is silver. I looked closely at the new locket, i couldn't spot any cracks in it and it looked brand new.

I sat there staring at it for a while the others continuing about their conversation, I was mesmerized by the locket. Finally I decided to open it to see what's inside. I cautiously clicked the button but instead of opening it popped out a compartment. Looking inside I was caught off guard by what was in there and I gasped so quietly only I could hear.

inside was a folded up peice of paper that, on the side that showed, was a small picture a little baby...with white hair. I reached up my hand to touch the strand of hair that came past my shoulder. That has to be me, and if it is, in this picture I'm in a bib on the carpet with a women's hand reaching out. I quickly shut the compartment with my thumb, I can show the others later.

"Did you find anything?" Odd asked looking worringly at me, he obviously thought this bothered me, which it did.

Instead of telling him what it was I gave him a look that said ill show you later. He seemed to understand so I slipped the necklace into my pocket and turned my attention to the others.

"Okay I've got some great news!" Jeremy said eager to tell us.

"Well spit it out what are you waiting for?" Yumi said tapping her fork on the tray.

"I found a file in sector 5 that contains Williams codes, if we can acess it we can free William!" He said and I smiled. I've been feeling bad for William for a while now so I'm happy we can finally free him. It's not right to make someone act against their will.

"so are we going to lyoko tonight?" Ulrich asked

"actually no, remember we have the rest of the day off so we can go as soon as we're done." Aelita said she and Jeremy work together like a team, I guess they are one.

Once we were finished we headed down to the factory, walking through the woods the necklace felt heavy in my pocket. I don't want to bring it into lyoko, something tells me I shouldn't. So nondiscretely and keeping up with the conversation I slipped it out of my pocket a hung it on a branch. The only one who noticed was Odd, and again I gave him the I'll tell you later look, but at the same time I smiled. I truly feel that I can trust someone now, and I have no hesitation about telling him what I think about the locket.

Odd's POV

Once we had gotten to the factory I was feeling antsy, for some reason going to sector 5 felt like a bad idea. Maybe I was worried for Astrid or maybe I just didn't want to go to lyoko. Either way I don't know how to explain it. My minds not focused on the mission at hand but instead on the necklace Astrid got today. It was strange how it looked exactly like mine except for the color. Even stranger that Astrid found something she didn't want to share with the group. but she wants to shared it with me. Also why doesn't she want to bring it to the factory? There must be a reason.

While I was thinking i didn't notice Astrid's hand close around mine. Suddenly the nervousness went down and all I could do was be mesmerized by her smile. I looked into her eyes and she bent over to whisper something in my ear.

"meet me at the porthole tonight after we rescue William." she said and I smiled. Obviously this has to do with the necklace. Something about the fact that she only wants to share it with me makes me feel warm. Most people wouldn't pick me to share a secret with. But something tells me that if I had one I would share it too.

"Get to the scanners." Jeremy said as he walked over to the chairs and we all headed for the scanners. We let the girls go first and then me and Ulrich went.

Once we were in something went by me In a blur of brown, white, and light blue. "haha! This is fun!" Astrid exclaimed when I could see her straight. We were in the ice sector and she was skating around having a blast. I smiled warmly looking at her but then I thought.

"uh Astrid where did you get those?" I asked laughing as she whisked by Ulrich and he jumped.

"I don't know! Jeremy did you make these?" She asked still going at a moderate pace of fast!

"Yes I did, I figured you could use your own form of transportation and those were easy to make so why not?" He said and I could hear a laugh in his voice. I think every one was amused by her whizzing around as if flying.

"If it was easy to make do you think you could get us all ones?" Yumi asked her voice raising as Astrid almost ran into an ice spike. After a bit of silence we all suddenly fell down as we were unbalanced by the skates appearing on our shoes. I got up and Astrid skidded to a haunt in front of me.

"you look like you've done this before." I say teasingly and she replies by skating off again and pulling me with her.

"That's because I have!" she says her eyes sparkling. Soon we were all skating around and having a good time.

after ten minutes or so Jeremy said,"come on guys let's get back to the work at hand. I'll pull up every one else's vehicles and you can go to the edge of the sector." Even though the skates were fun I wasn't as good as Astrid was and that mysterious comment made me curious about her past. While she stayed on her skates we all got on our respected vehicles and headed off towards the edge of the sector. Astrid stayed close by me but she was limited to the ground.

As soon as we were at the edge of the sector jermeh typed in schyphio and we headed off to sector 5.

**Hey sorry about this being shorter than some, I've got some studying to do and I want to give you guys some more content. Thank you all who have commented and followed, I really appreciate it. I hope you like it so far and feel free to suggest things you would like to see happen. Thank you again for keeping me inspired and don't forget to create what you like every now and then. Love you guys! Oh I guess it's not that short... Oh well thanks anyway!**


	7. Code: mission success!

Astrid's POV

after I had shot a few monsters and aelita had epically pushed the button I liked sector 5. Ive only been here once before but I liked the electronic and futuristic look of it. I feel most comfortable in here, like I can kick butt ten fold. Powered up and ready to go I didnt have to ask where to go I just started to head in that direction. The others followed me and Odd ran up to my side. He gave me a question but impressed look. I smiled at him in return.

"Jeremy didn't tell you where to go did he?" Ulrich asked a little more confused then Odd.

"nope." Jeremy said and the others looked at me expectantly

"lucky guess? I don't know it just felt like the right way.." I said honestly I couldn't explain it, something inside me just automatically register. And as I felt happy that I was able to figure it out, it gave me a strange feeling when I thought about it. We stepped inside one of those elevator things and went down. Then when we arrived at the right place, Aelita walked towards the edge and put her hand one the hologram thing. I can't hardly explain any of these things in I do know I want to use that thing sometime, I think I know how to access William's information. How I do and if it's the right way I don't know, but I want to try.

instead of focusing on that I shook my head and kept watch. No monsters came for most of it except for a few that didn't see us. Aelita kept searching and eventually we got off our guard and started to talk.

"you sure there aren't any monsters around Jeremy?" yumi asked we were all bored from waiting here.

"if they was don't you think Xana would've sent them already?" Odd asked swiping he tail back in forth as I was shooting an arrow at the ceiling.

"actually a nest of mantas are about to hatch, look out!" Jeremy said and Odd, Yumi, and I got on our guard while Ulrich stood by Aelita. I kept my bow notched and looked around, I couldnt see any manta but surely they were coming.

"Where are they?" I asked and they others shrugged while Odd said

" they can come from anywhere, but you should know where they are right Einstein." He asked and I took a glance over at Aelita still trying to find williams data. Just then I heard a manta's...call? We looked around wildly for a second but we still couldnt see it.

Thinking I suddenly said, "Below!" And three manta came out from right below our little diving board platform, instantly I notched my arrow and shot one but not before all thre of them could take a shot at Aelita. She was instantly devirtualized, weakened from a few creepers we had encountered earlier.

"Aelita!" Ulrich said and stabbed another manta and Odd shot the last one. We stood there In disappointment and aw at the fact our mission had ended. Finally I thought, if I wanted to do something useful maybe I could find William data!

"Do we have to stop now?" I asked and Ulrich sighed and put his sword away, Yumi out her fans away, but Odd look at me like I was a puzzle he suddenly couldn't solve. I smiled at him and he smiled back reaching out his hand I took it.

Then I looked over to the data pad, I let go of Odd's hand and walked over to it. " is Aelita the only one who can work these things?" i asked as it powered down and required a hand confirmation thing again.

"well she is now I guess, none of us have ever been able to open these as she ha..." She stopped herself as I put my hand on the hologram and and my name appear. It went to the little data place Aelita had been and I automatically went to,work. Sorting through the things that could and couldn't help me. Aelita has done most of the work but something catches me. On of the things she discarded had something. I selected it and went on for a few minutes.

"Jeremy... Is this it?" I asked getting too excited, it looks right and it shows everything I think we need. Suddenly I want to free him more than anything, i won't be able to stop until I do something.

"That's it!" I hear Aelita's voice she's just as excited as I am. "All you need to do is send it to Jeremy!" She said then guided me through how to do it, even though I already know how.

I sent it to Jeremy and took a step back, excitement gleaming in my eyes. Odd came up to me and smiled, I gave him my best smile yet. Looking at him I could distract myself forever. Instead Jeremy interrupts saying " alright I'll send you guys in."

Something blasted me and I fell to my knees one hand clutching my forehead. A wisper, I was aware of the others calling my name but this was different.

"You were born for me. You are MY force!" I flinched as it suddenly became a yell.

Odd's POV

When she collapse suddenly to the ground panic rose through me. You never know what could happen in lyoko, especially when Xana has his eye on you. I put my arm on her shoulder as the others rushed over. But she rises up and looks apologetically at us.

"I'm sorry I was hit with a migraine. I get those a lot." She says and everyone breathes a sigh of relief, except me. Something in the way she flinched a moment ago, and the look she has in her eyes tells me that shes not telling the truth and that this might be a little too much to tell even me. She looks at me deeply with apology as she's notices I knows she lying. I give a warm smile and suddenly I'm in cases in hers. The date we were supposed to go on could not come soon enough. We plan to go to the movies just as soon as something good comes on.. Although we both agreed that if we have to wait one more week we'll do something else.

We were devirtualized and headed back up to Jeremy and Aelita. Once we got up Aelita ran over and hugged Astrid. I was shocked, I guess I never realized how good of friends they were.

"You did great! I can't believe I missed that file!" Aelita said smiling, and Astrid started blushing. Yep if I don't go on a date with her doom someone else will.

"I just really wanted to try it out, the thing looked so cool!" She said the excitement returning to her eyes.

"if that's how you try out stuff could you help me 'try out' my homework?" Ulrich said and we all laughed.

Astrid turned to Jeremy and asked, "When can we free William?" She says her eyes excited but serious too. She wants to free him! Of course, that's why she was trying so hard to find his files, that's why she was disappointed when we were stuck with out Aelita. I figured she would be passionate about this, she seems the type of person who wouldnt think any one should have control over people. It brings me back to trying to figure out her past.

"Soon, just as soon as I can put this together in a form of nonxanafy." He said already getting to work.

We walked back to the dorms together, the others wanted to stay there for a little while and Astrid thought this would be the perfect time to tell me about the necklace and other things. We grabbed the necklace then headed to some benches a little ways away from the porthole.

"So whats special about the necklace?" I asked and she looked at me confused

"I've only found one thing, which is pretty special." She said as she popped open a compartment. thats strange! A locket that doesn't open like a clam. My thoughts trail off as she showed me what was in there. there is no mistaking her eyes and her hair.

"Thats you isnt it? Wait that papers folded... Is there more?" I asked worryingly. It must have been hard for her to see this, it had to have brought up memories.

"I didnt take it out yet... I didn't want to do it alone.." She said shyly and I smile warmly at her and hold her hand. Using my other hand she allows me to unfold the paper to see what's inside. it looks like a folded up picture but then the screen starts moving, and I hear a small gasp from Astrid. A seen unfolds and suddenly we are watching this mysterious thing together.

We see a women pick up the child and cradle her in her arms. Taking in details from the room it looks like they're in an orphanage.

"That's the new born's room!" Astrid exclaimed "I would help out there!" then she turns to me and says "this has to be the orphanage where I grew up, I used to help with the new horns, this is the room where they were in.." She gets a sad look in her eyes and I squeeze her hand. She doesn't have to go on if she doesn't want to. Just then she folds up the paper again and puts it back in the compartment.

"That was where they would put the new borne that were rejected from the start, the mothers never wanted to have them in the first place." She says with tears starting to flow down her cheek. I reach over and hug her. I have two of the best parents in the world, I could never imagine what's it's like to not have any at all.

"I'm sorry." I whisper into her ear and shoe holds me more tightly, tears running down her cheeks I comfort her with out question. I'm in love with her, I want her to feel happy and smile again, I want to make her happy. What could I say to her, Astrid don't worry about your parents I love you enough for both of them? When she sobs again I stop worrying about what to say, instead I hold tightly and she holds me back. We sit there for what seems like forever, but shorter than what I wish.

**Romantic ending! thank you guys for sticking with me! no Xana attack today but we did learn a little about Astrid. I hope you guys are enjoying and I want to let you guys know something. The reason i made this fan fic is because I'm inspired to be a writer, and I love code lyoko. I figured one way to put my writing out there was to do a fan fic. It wasn't a hard choice to make since I had wanted to do one anyway. I'm not in for the "amount" of comments even though it makes me really happy when I get one. If you guys have any suggestions on how I right or again if you would like to see something happen just tell me in pm or comment. Thank you to those who do comment! Especially Muffinmilk317 for writing a comment every chapter! Thank you guys! :) XD **


	8. (5) Code: it's time!

Astrid's POV

I love him. I don't know how to say it but I do. After we finally went back to our dorms I stayed awake thinking about how I could tell him. A few days later the others seem to suspect us but don't say anything, only smiling at us when we hold hands. Jeremy says that any day now we'll be able to free William. I can't wait for that day. Right now we are in a temporary art class we apparently have once a year.

"today we will be explaining what you will be doing in the next few weeks, tomorrow you'll be a song your partner for the entire course. You will be pared up with a different class from a different grade to do these projects." The teacher said and rolled his eyes as everyone groaned at being "assigned" a partner. She told us our first assignment would clay sculptures then painting then other fun stuff. We walked out of the class and headed towards gym.

"I love this class!" Ulrich said sarcastically walking beside Odd and I. We were holding hands and chatting while Ulrich complained about how he didn't like gym or jim.

"So when do you think we will be able to free William?" I asked and rich frowned a little. I got the impression that he and William weren't really on good terms. instead of focusing on that I looked at Odd instead.

"Soon I hope, maybe then you'll stop talking about it." Odd said teasingly and lightly shoved him.

smiling I responded with "Well it must be awful being trapped by Xana and all, even if he was a little reckless it doesnt mean he should be trapped like that." I said as I heard Ulrich snort quietly and mutter something I couldn't hear. "Besides im sure you guys would have been just as recklace as he was if you were suddenly put in that situation." I said teasingly back to Odd and he smiled.

"you weren't." Ulrich said suddenly and ran up a little to catch up with Jeremy and Aelita who were ahead of us. I stared I him shocked, they told me about Ulrich and William not being that friendly but I thought he wouldve gotten over it. It's not like he hasn't been punished enough.

Odd squeezed my hand and said "It's not really his fault he doesn't like him, they were never going to be the best of friends. He will get over it though, in the meantime which class are we pared up with for the art thing I wasn't paying attention." I laughed and smiled

"They haven't told us yet but I'm hoping we can get you is class. I asked the teacher and he said that he can try to pare our classes up." I said still laughing

"How did you get him to even consider it?" Odd asked surprised, the teacher isn't exactly the nice type.

"you sometimes a please and a thank you can get you far." I said as we walked into the gym. Something does bother me, well not exactly bother, more confuses me. All my life adults have turned their back on me and teachers have refused to notice me, why is it different here. A lot of things are different her but why would something so continuos change? I was born on the other side of the country but should that make a difference. Maybe there was something I didn't know but all the adults did. sighing I give up on the matter and listen to jim.

"today we will be practicing on these jumping..uh.. Jumping.. Um.. On these." He said and pointed to some things that look like pull up bars along with a bouncy trampoline thing. All we have done in PE class so far has been running on the track. Apparently when he demonstrated stuff like this he was really funny. "Now the routine we will be learning goes like this." He said and started to run forward to the bouncy thing. He jumped on it and grabbed the bars but fell off. Every one in the room immediately started laughing and I was hit with a wave of pity. i know what's it's like to be laughed at.

instead of joining in I watched as he got up, his face flash with sadness before he put an annoyed look on. just before he was about to tell us to quit down I called out "Try again!"

everyone in the room stopped to look at me but I dont care, I just look at him encouragingly and he smiles. Then he gets up and walks back over to the starting place. The room was dead silent as he ran up again, jumped, and did the routine. he wasn't perfect with the routine but at least he didnt fall. I clapped then Odd, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Aelita were. Soon the entire gym class was clapping. Was this his first time making one of those? I surely hope not. After that we went up one by one to try it.

Soon class was over and we went to lunch, grabbing my food and sitting at the table I was still smiling. Ulrich and Jeremy were telling Yumi what happened.

"she just called out while every one else was laughing. I had never thought to try and encourage Jim." Jeremy said, and everyone else nodded. Yumi just laughed and said it sounded cool.

"On a different note," I said trying to change the subject, "When do you think we'll be able to save William?"

Jeremy thought for a moment then Aelita whispered in how ear. They kept the conversation going like that for a few minutes until finally he said, "Either today or tomorrow."

"If your that close why did it take you so long to figure it out?" Odd asked, but I don't care how long it took. For some reason I feel a strange connection a reason to free William.

"So how are we going to?" Yumi asked taking a bite out if her food.

"ItS complicated, but I can put it into a short version for you guys. Basically im going to need Astrid's help." He said looking at me.

"You will?" I said suprised, I wouldn't think I would have much to do with the actually freeing of him. Yumi seems to be the closes.

"yes, something went wrong when we were trying to put the program for freeing Yumi into a useful condition. Somehow it combined with your avatar on lyoko, the only way to uncombine it is to apply it to William."

"How does she do that?" Yumi asked and I thought about it carefully. I wouldn't be surprised if it was some crazy process.

"All she has to do is get close enough to William and then I can launch the program. It should attach to him and then he'll be free. We just have to fix a few bugs before we are ready." Jeremy said and I was slightly shocked to be honest, normally all of Jeremy's plans are super complicated because of the amount of work They have to do.

"Then that should be a piece of cake, we just have to get him to come out of any hiding place He could be in" Odd said and squeezed my hand, I smiled excitedly up at him. this is going to be great!

Odd's POV

He called us down at around four when we had some free time. Apparently they were ready to try out the program. I met up with Astrid and we chatted the whole way down. She kept asking questions like what if it doesn't work or what if something goes wrong. Even though she has that worrying face on that I want to sweep from her she is still beautiful. The fact that she's not worry about something going wrong with her part or if she got into trouble, yet she is worried about William who tried to attack her amazes me.

"You shouldn't be nervous for William he wouldn't be hurt by this, you however could. I dont think it's a good idea." I said worryingly and put my hand into hers.

"It's not like it should make any difference for me, besides, I have to get it out somehow. Might as well do it this way." She said cheerfully and smiled brightly. I really hope this works.

At the lab she went into a scanner tapping her foot. She was either anxious to get it over with or anxious to get on those ice skates again. I'm going to suggest the first one. As she, Yumi and Ulrich went in I was supposed to stay here in case something happened. Aelita was also staying just for safety reasons. We don't want her to accidentally get captured and then die... That would be kinda a bummer.

Aelita and I watched on the screen as Astrid's figure flowed across. I laughed as i heard her cheer through Jeremy's head set.

"So how exactly do we coach William out?" I asked, still slightly annoyed from the fact that I couldn't go.

"

We have to wait until he figures he could come out. Hopefully he will." Aelita said calmly, however I noticed she was tapping her foot as well.

"Jeremy could you possibly turn it on speaker or something?" I asked, hearing little whispers was getting annoying. Besides I want to hear what's happening, not just watch what's happening.

"Okay okay sure." Jeremy said as he typed a little, then suddenly I could here Astrid's voice.

"Come on my bow out ranks your weapons any day! Besides you can't forget about these." She said and I assume she activated her wrist and toe knives. I grinned.

"If I could I would show you just how powerful these babies are!" Yumi said, again I assume she pulled out her fans.

"Ladies ladies, let's not forget about this beauty." Ulrich said as he, once more I assume, pulled out his sword.

I called through the computer, "Come on guys lets focus on the mission, besides none of you could possibly match up to lazer arrows." boasting a pretended to shoot a lazer arrow.

After that we got into a somewhat detailed conversation of boasting and how better our weapons were. Personally I actually liked Astrid's the best, I mean she got arrows and knives, all I have are giant purple paws.

Soon enough though we were bound to catch xana's attention. Astrid was still skating around till she came to an abrupt stop. Horrified I could see her figure on the screen suddenly run into an unexpected William.


	9. Code: William

Astrid's POV

Running into William wasn't exactly fun. I was enjoying myself a little too much skating and Xana sent in William at exactly the right moment. The worst part about it was I had no idea what to do when the time came.

"Jeremy! What do I do?" I yelped as I scrambled and tried to get away from William. He had grabbed my wrist again, though the schyphozoa was no where to be seen.

"I have to start the program! I forgot to prepare it before hand. Just try to not get capture by Xana!" Jeremy said and I cursed. I would have been much simpler if I could just zap him with reality right here. But looking at him my eyes soften, he shouldn't be forced against his will like this.

"Astrid!" Yumi called as a fan hit William. Goodness I love that girl. I quickly skated away to the safety of the others. Something nagged at me in the back of my mind though, it seems to easy. No blocks or anything? It almost seems like he wants us to free William. I pushed the thought out of my mind, that's not important right now.

"You ready yet Jeremy?" Ulrich asked, even though he didn't like William, he was just as serious about getting him freed as the rest of us. And I was seriously getting freaked out by the stare he was giving me.

"Almost, Astrid when I say go fire and arrow at him. Make sure you don't miss!" Jeremy said and I notched an arrow and pointed it at him. Curving back around so I can be closer, I felt something. It might be the program! It was inside of me right, so I guess I can feel it.

"Alright... Go!" He said and I let go of the arrow. It shot through the air flying towards him he didn't have the chance to move away. However just as it hit him a sheep pain was released in me.

_"You will obey me! I will use you. You will be the lyoko warriors undoing!" _the voice Said inside my head. What does he want? It must be Xana, no one else would say that! As the voice faded and the throbbing slowly went away I opened my eyes. Yumi and Ulrich were standing over me and yumi had a hand on my shoulder.

"Are you okay?" She asked she looked worried but I glanced behind her at the spot where William used to be. "He's fine,he was devirtualized when your arrow shot him. But I don't know if it worked yet. What about you though?" She said again.

"I'm fine, I had another one of those split second, annoying as sissy migraines." I said smiling briefly. I hate lying to them but I need time to figure this out. I dont want them to worry about figuring it out for me. Especially not Jeremy, he works to hard as it is!

"I'm bringing you in." Jeremy said and we were devirtualized. Coming out of the scanner I could see Odd and a groggy and human looking William.

"is he safe?" Yumi asked as she came came out, ulrich walked over too while I just stayed a little out of it. It seems like this reuniun will have to be one with friends.

"Yeah he's good, a little memory loss, but he's still good." odd said and looked over to me. I smiled instantly and he gestured to come over. His soft smile urged me there, despite not wanting to intrude. Jeremy and Aelita came down cautiously and they started to question him.

"You don't remember anything? Nothing at all?" Yumi asked and I once again backed out. Odd came over to me and took my hand.

"No, it's a fuzzy. Its like, I have it all but I don't know what it is." William said trying to concentrate. Another wave of pity washed over me, it must be hard for him. I would never tell him though, he doesn't seem like the guy who would want pity.

"well he isn't possessed by Xana anymore, so I'm going to go disable his clone." Jeremy said and he and Aelita went back to the computer room. I never really talked with Williams clone. I saw him a few times with Yumi but I stayed away from him, he gave me the creeps.

"Clone?" William said as he started to get his bearings. He stood up and faced Yumi mostly, but Ulrich was next to her and Odd kept trying to pull me in with them.

"Well you've been a slave to Xana for about two months now. We had to come up with something so the others wouldn't notice you were gone. Honestly hes not the brightest thing and your fathers kinda worried. Your going to have to build up your reputation again." Ulrich said and I suddenly realized how hard it would be to do that. I mean, everyone has been making jokes about him and it won't be easy to explain.

"Any way its getting late. You probably need time to rest so we should all head back. We will be watching just in case something sneaky is going on though." Yumi said and I could see a slight change in Williams face, it wasn't hard to tell he was disappointed he couldn't be trusted. I'm lucky I wasn't captured like William was.

After Jeremy was done with the clone business we all headed back to the school. Odd and I held hands and chatted, a little distant from the others who were going over what had happened in the last two months to William.

"You don't have to worry." Odd said, "Your part of the group now, you don't have to avoid things."

"How did you know that's what I was worried about?" I asked generally shocked. I thought he thought I was afraid of William.

"Because I know you." He said simply, smiling warmly. Despite what I was worried about I could never resist smiling back to Odd. He would never fail at making me smile.

"So there's on last questions I have." William said and I turned to look at him. He was staring at me and Odd and under the gaze I started to feel antsy. "How did Astrid get into the group and when did she become Odds girlfriend?" Suddenly I could feel myself blushing redder than a tomato. Yumi and Aelita gave me sympathetic looks that simply said, boys are clueless. Odds hand was getting heavier and heavier in mine.

"Ahem, I think Yumi can fill you in on that. In the meantime you might want to try to actually get one yourself." Odd said and I snapped my head over to looked at him. He was smiling triumphantly and I realized instead of being embarrassed he was proud William had said that. I smiled warmly at him and when he looked over he gave me a lopsided smile. We walked onward leaving the others a little shocked. I squeezed his hand and started to talk again. Yep, definably his girlfriend!

Odds POV

Walking home with Astrid was always fun, declaring us boyfriend and girlfriend put a cherry on top Of the ice cream come. I just hope she feels the same way, I mean the smile she gave me made me think so but you never know. The others finally seemed to regain there conscious and started walking again.

"Hmm, if an cow can jump over the moon and the elephant can jump over the fence, then why can't a cat jump down from a tree?" Astrid asked randomly and I laughed.

" I hope that wasnt a serious question because I have ansolutely no idea what your talking about." I said and she giggled.

"I was just thinking. It's funny how things don't match up from one thing to another." she said and then looked at me and said, "Anyway are you excited of that art thing?"

"I kinda suck at art but it'll be more fun if I'm your partner." I said and she smiled brightly. The looked back at the others. They had continued talking and trying to get William ready for coming back. I knew Astrid would feel kinda left out of this, so that's why I stayed with her and talked. Honestly I would much rather talk with her then any one else today.

Just then we walked into the school...area? I don't know, anyway, Sissi came up to us and said, "What are you guys doing with that idiot?" Gesturing to William and saw astrid wince. She probably knows what it feels like to have to build a reputation from ground up. It only makes me more curious about her past. However when we looked at the sheet of rough paper with her past on it she seemed to sad to go on. I will never force her to show me or go through it again, I just wish I knew.

"Well he has more wits than you ever proved to have." I said and William gave me a shocked look. Hey astrid seems to emphasize with him, why not?

"Hmmph!" Sissi said and stormed off, we started walking back again and I could see Sissi whispering to some others girls, occasionally glancing at us. Great, I can't wait for more gossip.

"It's fine, even she know she can't bother us." Astrid said and as I looked at her I noticed how strong she looks. She stands tall and her eyes are filled with modest authority as she stares at Sissi. We headed towards the dorms and said goodbye. Ulrich and jeremy caught up to me as the girls and William went there own way. Ulrich gave me a strange but interested look as we walked back in silence.

Finally Ulrich broke the silence when he asked, "So what class do you think we'll get for the art project tomorrow?" I remember Astrid saying that she asked the teacher to pair us up with you is class.

"Dont know, are you hoping to be partnered with Yumi?" Einstein asked raising his eyebrow at Ulrich.

"I don't know. How bout asking charming over here, do you think you'll be able to be paired with Astrid?" Ulrich asked me. I stiffened. suddenly I realized that the whole point of getting with another class was to be paired with someone you don't normally talk with. The chances that me and Astrid will be paired is slim. William, what if she gets paired with William? the thoughts raised through my mind. She has taken a liking to him, if she spends more time with him then what will happen?

"Uh oh I think something finally clicked, I think brain is finally thinking hard!" Jeremy said and Ulrich laughed. I just continued to walk foward and not say a word. When we got to the room I changed into sleeping clothes and went to bed. I could tell Ulrich was still looking at me strangely. I don't care, I've got to take Astrid on a date soon. Hopefully we will be able to go this weekend or so.

**Hey guys! Sorry I had a birthday party this weekend and all week I haven't been able to write. Hopefully I can finish the next chapter soon, I don't want to keep you waiting. Also I want to say that this is a fanfiction, and I really love it when you guys help me know when I mess something up about the story. However I just want you to know that some of them are purposeful, as in this chapter and future chapters to come can get a little off. Even so I appreciate help with these things. Thanks and keep creative! (I'm trying this out, does it sound good?:)) **


	10. (6) Code: Turbulence

Astrid's POV

"So, what was with last night?" Aelita asked me. After we got to the dorm all I felt like doing was crashing. I suppose she must have thought it was strange.

"Oh sorry, for some reason once I got back I was so tired I could hardly put my pajamas on." I said laughing a bit. It's about 7:00am and we didn't have class today until 9:00. We're about to down to Breakfast but she had to fix something on her computer first.

"How do you think William is doing?" She asked me as we left our room. I had been thinking about how hard it was for me when I moved from school to school and everyone thought I was a freak with my silver hair.

"I hope he's doing alright. It's not easy having to build up a reputation." I said and we chatted about it the rest of the way to breakfast. My stomach rumbled and Aelita giggled at me. I didn't dinner last night after we saved William.

"Hungry?" Aelita asked as we walked into the cafeteria. I almost drooled at the food, Im hungrier than I thought. We got our food and sat down with everyone else. Yumi was already there but Odd and Ulrich were devouring their food. I sat down next to him and said only a small hello until I dug into mine.

Aelita sat next to Jeremy and said, "I think their hungry."

"Well didnt they eat dinner last night?" Yumi said laughing as Ulrich finally looked up from his food.

"Odd and I crashed once we got back to our room, I'm guessing Astrid did too." He said wiping his mouth with a napkin. Just then William walked over and sat down.

"hi William!" yumi said "How has it gone?" Referring to the clone Business.

"Well my dad seemed happy enough when I 'came to my senses'" he said figuring his hands in quotation mark symbols. "At least it wasn't as bad as I thought." He sighed.

"Well did anyone tell you about the art project class today?" I asked my mouth half full. He should probably know or else he'll really seem like an idiot.

"Yumi told me. It seems strange they haven't done this before have they?" He asked and I could tell he was trying to change the subject. We chatted a bit more about that and what we were doing in other classes. Odd, Ulrich, and I all went up to get seconds. Odd kept trying to steal my crescent.

William kept looking at us though, I found it strange that he thought it was strange me and Odd were "together". I mean he tries to hit on Yumi. I let the subject drop from my mind as we finished breakfast and went to check the new bulletin board they put up. Instead of telling us this class period they decided to put up which classes were paired on the board. I crossed my fingers as I looked for our class.

"Oh here it is! Ours is paired with yours!" Yumi said excitedly and I couldve sworn I saw Ulrich flinch a bit. He really shouldn't be so sensitive About that.

"This will make it easy in case of Xana attacks, at least until this class is over." Jeremy said and I looked excitedly at Odd. He looked troubled for a second but before I could say anything he turned to me and smiled. I smiled back but I'll have to ask him about that later.

"We still have about a half an hour, what should we do?" I asked as we walked away from the bulletin board so others could have a look.

"We could just go hang out it the rec room." William suggested and after thirty seconds of "pondering" we headed down to the rec room. Odd sifted closer to me and we held hands as we walked there. I looked over and caught him giving William a strange look.

"What's wrong?" I whispered to him and he squeezed my hand gave me smile. We'll talk about it later.

"hey what's that?" Yumi asks and points towards the left side of the room. I looked over and on a small table was a trumpet with a few mouth pieces soaking in water...no it's cleaning solution. I walk over there quickly and read a sign that says, _tWin this trumpet, enter the raffle and find out tomorrow who wins! Take one mouth piece to play, clean after use!_

Suddenly I get a flash back to when I was in the orphanage as a ten year old girl. I used to play the trumpet then, even the adults who hated me never denied me when I asked to practice. Every day at four I would practice for thirty minutes, the tune of my favorite song still whispers inside of me. I reach out for a mouth piece and look at the raffle box. No one has put their name in. Quickly I scratch my name on one of the slim sheets of paper, fold it up, and throw it in the empty box. I double check to make sure the signs date says today's and then I put the mouth piece on the trumpet. At this point every one is staring at me wondering what I'll do. Years in being in that coma without practicing would probably make me sound horrible but I don't care. Just as I remember I put my mouth to the mouth piece and buzz. A smooth professional sound comes out and before I know it my fingers are pushing the right buttons and my mouth is using the right muscles. My favorite song comes out in a quiet but smooth and professional style. When the song ends I snap out of my trance and look at the others. I laugh as I see there mouths hanging open and faces in plain shock.

"Di I ever tell you I can play the trumpet?" I asked casually and still laughing.

Odds POV

I was shocked. just flat out blow away. Who knew she could play the trumpet!? And who knew she could play it that good? I stood there with my mouth on the floor for a few seconds until I finally answered her question.

"No! that definatly never came up!" I said laughing And I walked ober to her smiling. She took my hand and the others started to recover. Next to her I reached over and signed my name on a card and through it in the raffle box. If anyone else wants it then now she has two chances. The others got my idea and all came up to do the same.

"That was awesome! Your really good!" Yumi said the pure truth in her voice. Jeremy, ulrich, and Aelita also comgradulated her. The only one who didn't was William, he stayed back and didn't put his name in the raffle either. He had a longing and almost disturbed look on his face. He must be sad to have been left out of this. Suddenly I realize that he doesn't know her at all yet, one of the only things he knows is that when it took him ages for us to trust him, we trusted her in a day. He just turned around and sat down on the couch.

"Well what should we do know, our intertwine not system seems to not want to play anymore." William said bitterly but I was the only one who heard him. Instead of reacting I just stayed at my spot next to Astrid. Turning to her I smiled and she smiled back. However behind the smiled I could see a line a concern and I followed her gaze after she looked away to William. After wanting to rescue him so much it must be a disappointment for him not to like her.

"Come on why don't we play some table tennis I said nudging her and the others started challenging each other, oblivious to what had happened. Right now it's between Me, William, and Astrid. Maybe the others will notice soon.

Williams POV

How could they. I wasn't gone for that long and it wasn't my fault I was gone. Somehow, though, they managed to trust someone else. Someone who they had known for less than a day. The group had always been secretive, kind and welcoming, except when I came to joining there group. I can't remember how many times it took for them to trust me, literally. Apparently there were times before I that I dont remember. I had to go through a lot to get them to trust me, and then it all disappeared when I was caught Xana. She didn't have o go through anything.

" William we have a table tennis set in here, you wanna play against me?" Yumi called over. I looked over and smiled. She is the only reason being in the group mattered to me. I would always fight for the others too but I am in love with Yumi, and that's all that counts. Maybe someday I can make her feel the same.

" Sure, why not?" I said and walked over there. The others were hanging around at a different table than Yumi's except for Odd and Astrid. Those two were over by themselves talking about something. By the look on there faces I could tell it wasn't good news. Curiosity burned inside of me but not enough to drive me away from Yumi. Once we started playing I was acutely aware of Ulrich watching me.

I beat Yumi just barely and she laughed, claiming she let me win. By this time Odd and Astrid were done talking and had been watching our game. Cheering occasionally. Before Yumi and I left to go do something else Astrid came up and asked me, " Can I play a game?" sudden end hatred burned inside of me. All of the bitter thoughts I held came flooding into my mind.

I was just about to refuse when Yumi said, "I'd like to see this. Astrid can play a pretty mean game." the others walked over and I had no choice. As the anger subsided I couldn't help admire the persistent but kind smile she had. Just like when I had to prove myself to the others. I sighed, picked up a paddle, and shot the ball across the table. Fast as lightning she hits it back. It goes on like this for a while until we all have to hurry to class, neither of us making a single point.

Once we get to the room out classes were assigned I sit down next to Yumi and the others sit around us. Astrid and Odd sit at the table to the right of us, Aelita and Jeremy sit in front of us, and Ulrich sits on the other side of Yumi at the table to the right of us.

"We will be combining classes to make this process quicker and more fun. We will also assigning partners. Your partner will be chosen at random from either class to make it fair. We will go around with a bucket full of names. After we do this we will dive right in to our first project." The teacher said and while one of them carried a bucket the other carried a clipboard. They went around the classroom and surprisingly none of our names were chosen yet when it finally got to Aelita.

"I got Jeremy!" Aelita said excitedly as she opened what she pulled out. The teacher holding the bucket search through the bucket util she found Aelitas name and took it out. Aelita looked up at her and said, " Doesnt that seem a bit tedious? Isnt it hard to find the name? Especially for the first one?"

I held back a laugh as the teacher looked back at her unamused, " Don't remind me of my mistakes mrs. Stones." then he walked over to Ulrich and he pulled out his name.

"Yeah yumi!" he cheered and he and Yumi fist bumped. My heart sank. Oh well, we still have all of our other classes together. Just because she gets him as a partner doesn't mean I won't see her anyway. He walked over to me and I pulled out a slip of paper. There were only a few left but I didn't have anybody to really hope to get.

I opened the paper and blinked a few times as I read it out loud, "Astrid"

Astrid's POV

Him. Why do I have to be with him? He hates me. I'm almost positive he hates me. Out of the entire class, the huge chance of being paired up with Odd, I have to get William?

At first I thought that William would be nice and fun to hang around but all I get from him is confused glares and the occasional cold stare. Both of which were kinda creepy. Disappoint had buzzed through me for the past few days but now I have to do this entire semester long class, partnered up with him. Odd got paired with this boy we didn't know from Yumi and William's class. William hadnt said anything to me after that. Since we didn't do anything with our partners today. After our classes we headed down to lunch. I made sure to sit away from him, seperating us with Odd and Aelita. I kept an eye on him and I noticed he did the same. Despite revolting when I saw what he was like I still couldn't resist giving him a soft smile when our eyes met. Whenever I was interacting with him his nature suddenly changed in my view. for some reason that just made me dislike him more.

"So what's are next move?" I asked and everybody looked away from chatting. The topic of lyoko must have been on their minds too. "Now that we've saved William, what's our next goal?" I asked through a bite of meatball.

"Clearly you haven't been apart of the group long enough to know that we need to get the virus out of Aelita." William said before Jeremy could explain. Just then a sharp object hit the back of my head and I yelped, not able to react to Williams rude comment.

"Ow!" I said as my hand instinctively flew to the place where it hit. It burned for a second but I looked around widly trying to find the thing that hit me.

"What happened?" Jeremy asked while I turned around to see where I came from.

"Something hit her in the back of her head." Odd said nudging my head sideways so he could see what it did. " Well more like back of her neck." He said and I flinched as he touched to spot it hit. "Theres going to be a bruise."

"it's fine" I said through gritted teeth. Then I spotted a good size rock on the floor between Odds and my chair. I bent down to pick it up. I set it on the table and everybody stared at it.

"Who do you think through it?" Ulrich asked and I shrugged angrily. Whoever it was is really asking for it. Just then a wave of exhaustion swept over me. I yawned hugely, giving up all hope no one would notice.

"Did you not get a lot of sleep last night?" Aelita asked, looking as confused as I felt. I got plenty of sleep, I don't remember waking up during the night. I shrugged again, the anger subsided but still lingering. Something is really ticking me off today and it's not the blazing pain still throbbing the back of my neck. As we finished lunch we headed toward to factory. As I yawned again the thought occurs to me that they never specifically told me what we are planning now.

**Surprise! Ha ha! How many of you were expecting a new point of view to come along? Yes I decided I wanted to spice things up a bit. For those who didn't or couldn't notice the summary, which is a pretty bad one on my part, tells a tale of a love triangle. And I know I told you guys you dint have to comment and all that stuff, but I would like it if you told me what you think of this. Like I've said before I want to be an author so anything helpful from you guys would be greatly appreciated. Anywho sorry for not posting for so long. Well. Maybe it hadn't been that long but it seems like it to me. Either way I got pokemon y so my life has pretty much been filled with that. On that note I'll try to post sooner next time!**


	11. code: sleep troubles

Odds POV

We headed down to the factory and it felt good to be able to hold Astrid's hand and chat. I kept glancing at the back of her neck ,though, and I think she could thing that hit her head came out of no where and i just wish I knew who did it. Rousing myself from my thoughts I listen to Astrid's question.

" So what **are **we planning on doing know at lyoko. William was right, I don'treally know that much, it's not like I've been here long." She said staring at the ground. I squeezed her hand and smiled. She looked up at me and gave a week smile back. Her head was probably still hurting but Im guessing she has so many troubling things on her mind to go with it. Im lucky I got a smile out of her at all.

" Frankly youve been doing things that are actually helpful longer than he has. The only reason he knows that is because that's the main thing we were working on when he was 'joined in'" I said making quotation marks with my dingers. She smiled and muttered thanks, but I get the feeling it'll take a while before she really sees it. I helped her climb down the latters, once we got down she yawned again.

" Why are you so tired?" ulrich asked her teasingly when he heard her yawn. She shrugged and gave a short smile. Come to think of it I wonder why she was so tired. I glance a the back of her neck as we skate down the sewers. As she reached up her hand to her mouth and yawned she hit a rock and a fell sideways as her skateboard slid from beneath her feet.

"aahhh!" She screamed as she hit the the sewer water. I quickly stopped in my tracks to help her out. i reached out my hands to her and pulled her up. She sat on the floor shivering for a second and when she opened her eyes I could see exhaustion lingering.

"You okay?" I asked and just nods. Her eyes flash with irritation as she muttered thanks again. She's had a rough day and it's not exactly swimming temperature right now. I pull off her jacket and squeeze the water out. The electric blue jacket didn't look so electric now.

"Are you guys okay?" Yumi called back and I waved her on. They didn't need to busy themselves with us. She stands there for a minute then calls back, " Okay just get to the factory quickly." Just then I notice William who was behind us come up. He walked past then stopped, through his jacket onto Astrid, then skater after the others not saying a word.

I stare after him for a moment until Astrid's head falls onto my shoulder. I snap my head around to see her asleep. I gently nudge her awake again, my eyes softening. "Hey, this is no place for a nap. Wake up. Your covered in cold sewage water, how can you even think about sleeping?" I say laughing as she groggily opens her eyes.

" Odd, I can't wake up. I-I really can't." She's says weakly and I quickly grow serious as I notice her struggling to keep her eyes open. "Odd.." She whispers than falls back on my shoulder. Panicking I start nudging her again. Harder and harder each time she didn't wake up.

"Astrid! Wake up!" I yell as none of my attempts to wake her work. I look around, there's gotta be something here to help. As I'm looking around I spot something coming behind us. I throw myself over Astrid to protect her just as a projectile zooms past us. I look up and stare at it as it keeps going, then flies up the porthole leading to the factory. I wince as I hear the loud "Bang!" of the man hole lid coming down on the ground.

I think rapidly. I can't carry Astrid to the others because of the ladder and the cable. Also I can't just leave her hear, not alone asleep. My thoughts are interrupted by a ring. I pull out my phone and answer Jeremy's call.

"Where are you two? A towers activated and William was hit by a Xana bullet of some sort. It made him fall asleep after a minute! We need you two!" Einstein exclaimed through the phone.

"Listen I think Astrid was hit by that too. Remember at lunch? And how she's been yawning?" I say

"Okay okay, bring her here and we'll deactivate the tower. Be careful though!" Jeremy says and hangs up. As I pick Astrid up and start running toward the sewer ladders I think, why would he need to say be careful? I've been doing this as long as he, I know how handle myself. After some troubles and make shift stair case I mange to get me and Astrid into the elevator. I see her eyes flutter a little as we go down but she doesn't wake up.

"Astrid" I whisper worryingly and hurry into the room when the doors open.

"Great your here, put her down and get to the scanners, Xana doesn't seem happy today." Einstein says and i set astrid down next to William. Hopefully this will be over soon. I climb down the ladder and go into the scanners. When does Xana ever seem happy?

Astrid's POV

Twice, I had been able to crack my eyes open twice. But I was only able to crack them open until I fell back into the nightmares. The nightmares were strange, strange but well scary, as nightmares tend to be. First of all Xana, who I'm assuming is the cause of this, some how knows about my fear of heights. Thats what the first one was. I was on top of the Eiffel Tower and looking over. Odd was beside me holding onto me so I wouldn't fall. Don't get me wrong that was the good part, because after that I was push by someone behind me. Then I was falling. It wasn't some num dream that would fade away eventually, I was actually falling. At least it felt like it. But that wasn't even the worst part. As I was falling I could see every one else falling too. They were fading away like dust as we fell.

There were more though. Or maybe they were the same, but as I hit the ground I suddenly changed into water and felt like when I hit the sewer water. Again the bad part was when I came up for air. Thick ice surrounded the top of the water, and every time I got close to cracking it it hardened again. Just as I had to take a breath of even water I was transferred again. I was suddenly standing in a burning building and as I took a breath it was a breath of smoke. That was the cycle. Every time I went through it I woke up for a few seconds. At least that's what I assume.

This time however when I opened my eyes I was back in the rec room with every one standing over me. I sit up and Odd leans me against his chest. Faster now I gain my bearings and look around. Weren't we in the factory? That's what I saw when I opened my eyes.

"I really hate random flying objects." I say randomly and everyone starts laughing. Somehow I think they were relieved. I look at Odd and he starts to explain about the Xana attack and we had returned to the past. I had fallen down with out waking up so everyone was worried I wouldn't wake up. I smiled, despite the nightmares, despite everything I felt happy. Every one took turns explaining that William was hit too and how the towers were guarded hard at fist but After ten minutes xana's little helpers just up and left. Somewhere during the explanation Ulrich left and brought back some coffee.

"You know I've never tried this before...oh blegh! I mean thanks it taste great Ulrich." I say as I take a sip. Everyone laughs again and I stand up, stretch and grab a few sugars like the people at the orphanage would do.

"Ulrich always makes his with what seems like negative sugar." Yumi said teasingly and after putting two packs if sugar in I tasted it.

"perfection." I say and notice William staring at me oddly.

" How do you know you like two sugars if you've never had it before?" William asked and I shrugged.

"The adults at the orphanage would always put two sugars in there's, I just assumed it would be good." I say and take another sip. Od took my left hand and I smiled at him.

"Wait you were in an orphanage?" Aelita ask and I shrug happily again.

" I'm still in the orphanage, at least until I can get a house and a job. Going to places like these with a scholarship helps with that. I don't have to use up the money my father left for me." I answered simply. Thinking about it I guess they don't know what I mean by that.

" wait but I thought it was your mother who put you in The orphanage." Jeremy said, even he was trying to wrap his head around this.

"She did, that's what they tell me at least. I was a baby then. " I say a little coldly so I explain further. "They told me that they were friends with my mother and father and when they notified my father that my mother put me in a orphanage, they were never married and my mother had gotten full custody of me, he couldn't take me so for a reason they never told me but he gave up a large enough sum of money so I could go to a good college."

They all stare at me in a quiet shock again. It's not very hard to understand, I mean pretty much my mother abandoned me and my father couldn't take me so he gave me money to support myself. How did we even get to this we were talking about coffee? I giggle to myself thinking about it and they all give me strange looks which made me laugh harder.

"Nothing nothing, I was just thinking about... Nothing" I say in between laughing breaths. Odd smile and squeezed my hand.

"well anyway we should head to class." Jeremy said and we all headed down. Smiling I walked a happy silence close to Odd, my fingers intertwined with his. He seemed content as well and we let the others carry the conversation.

We carried on through the day the same way it happened before. William and I were paired together, but this time he didn't seem as miffed as before, even though he seemed to try hard to choose Yumi's name. When we were heading for lunch Odd went to get a letter from the... Wherever you get letters here. Odd picked up mine when I got one. When we were walking back William came over and tapped my shoulder. No one else seemed yo notice as he pulled me away from the conversation.

We walked behind a corner and he asked, "When you were asleep, from the Xana thing, did you get those nightmares too?" I could head a tad of nervousness in his voice.

"Mmhmm." I said plainly, somehow I was at a loss for words being alone with him. I picked up my act and said, "Why?"

"Well don't you think we should try to see where it's buried?" He asked plainly like of course I knew what he was talking about.

"Whoa whoa whoa, where what's buried? What type of nightmares did you have?" I asked and a look of panic shot across his face.

" No, never mind-" he started to say.

"no way, no how. Spilled it, you already let it loose so give me the rest of it." I say curious but also angry. He shouldn't be keeping secrets from the group. Although I guess he didnt get a chance to tell them yet. Quickly I say, "It okay if you don't want to tell ME but just make sure you tell the others." My eyes softened as I took in his situation.

"No, I'll tell you. Can you spare some time tonight?" He said looking at me with intense thinking eyes. Something must have changed his mind.

"Yeah, when?" We don't have much time left before the others start to question.

"Meet me... Um, nevermind I'll text you later where to go." He said looking releived that I understood our time limit. After that we quickly hurried to the cafeteria. When we grabbed our food and sat down Odd was already reading his letter.

"Where were you two?" Odd asked when we sat down, do I hear suspicion in his voice? I better not.

" William was challenging me to a table tennis rematch." I lie easily. The others give a short laugh then continue with the conversation they were having. I glance over at William and our eyes meet. He gives such a small nod that I think I might have imagined it. Od had gone back to his letter and I wait for him to finish. When he looks up he turns to me and smiles. I smile back broadly. He reaches to grab my hand but then shoots it over to my plate and snags my roll.

"hey give that back!" I said laughing as I snatch it back from him. We do that back and forth, figuring out some way to get the roll from the other. Finally we got a warning glance from a teacher and we settle down.

"So." I say still laughing a little. the others had just rolled their eyes at us. "What's the letter about?" Once I say it he gets serious. The others turn and pay attention when they hear it.

"Well, do you remember brynga?"

**Hey guys, I don't know but was this chapter shorter? Any way hope you like the cut off ending thingy. I was planning on adding williams point of view but it seems long enough by word amount. Either way I wanted to keep supplying you with content. It feels like earlier this week I was neglecting this story. Anywho thanks for supporting me and keep it up! :)**


	12. Code: back again

Williams POV

Why was I such an idiot. Why did I tell her? Even though I ask myself this I'll never understand. I'll never understand why one day I feel anger toward her one day and the next day I feel kindness. I want to tell her everything, including the dream and the stupid locket. The nightmare that I had still bothered me.

Everyone was tied to a poll above the digital sea. Every one except Astrid and me. a dark figure stood before me and the others were calling out for help. The figure told me go get a locket, it was buried somewhere at kadic. It told me that if I gave him the locket the others would be freed. At that point I looked around for Astrid for help but I couldn't find her. The scene kept replaying it self and every time I ran for any exit, trying to get out to get the locket. But as soon as I took a step outside the door it would start over. I fired since I couldn't find Astrid she could've had the dream too. Yeah, i don't get my logic either.

Now I was sitting at lunch trying to figure out when I could explain it all to her. Odd had gotten a letter from this girl brenga. Apparently she was coming for another visit. I think he said she was from ice land or something. I noticed one thing though. He looked nervous talking about her in front of Astrid and the others did too. However Astrid still looked cheerful as ever. I think something must be wrong with that girl.

"So what is she like? Brynga I mean." Astrid asked with happy curiosity. Its obvious something is up but does she realize that? Odd and the others still looked awkward about it but they still answered her.

"She's um, nice?" Aelita said cautiously.

"Yeah, I I heard someone say she was the eighth wonder of the world." Ulrich said smirking at Odd. It hit me, Odd must have liked her, a lot. That's why he felt so awkward telling Astrid about her.

"Others could say she's a skinny and blonde mistake." Jeremy said and he and Aletia shared a amused glance.

"She was sissy's pen pal from ice land." Yumi said, "All of the guys fell for her." At that Astrid raised an eyebrow and smirked at Odd, Ulrich, and jeremy.

"Apparently shes coming over for another visit." Odd said folding the letter up and throwing it in the middle of the table.

"Wait but if she is sissy's pen pal, then why was she writing to you?" Astrid asked

"Well you see-" Ulrich started but Odd shoved a roll in his mouth.

"We were friends when she came, that's all." Odd say and Astrid looked back and forth between Ulrich and Odd.

"Okay." She said suspiciously but then asked, "When is she coming?"

"Later today actually, she sent this a while ago but I never bothered to pick it up till now." Odd said and Yumi, Ulrich, Jeremy, and Aelita shared a knowing glance. At that me and Astrid shared a confused one and Odd just stared at his empty plate.

Feeling pity for the poor guy who obviously wanted to change the subject I said, "Well we've got the rest of the day off why don't we have that rematch?" I say to Astrid and and she smirks. It was hard enough tying with her last time, how can I beat her this time? We finished eating and headed over to the rec room.

Once we got there Astrid suddenly ran over to the forgotten trumpet drawing and put her name in. "I almost forgot." She said this time I joined everyone else in putting my name in. I caught a look from odd that I couldn't tell what he was thinking.

We spent the rest of the afternoon taking it easy. Astrid finally beat me at table tennis and the others played a few games too. I was having fun for the first time since I was freed from Xana when sissy and ,I'm guessing, brynga walked in.

"Here they are. Come to my dorm later and we can hang out." Sissy said with a bitter but hopeful tone. she left Brynga here. Brynga had blonde hair and rosy cheeks. Looking at her made me feel like I was supposed to be attracted to her. For some reason though I'm not. I notice a few others boys in the room turn and stare.

"Hello." Brynga said plainly and the others didn't reply they all just looked at Odd who was sitting on the couch holding hands with Astrid. She had convinced him to play a board game. Earlier he was smiling but all joy was washed from his face now.

"Hi." He said coldly before turning away. He rolled the dice on the game board and moved his peice to the finish spot. "I win." He said smiling again at Astrid who was staring at Brynga.

Astrid looked over and said laughing, "Hey! You little cheat! It was my turn!"

"Nope I distinctly remeber you asked me to go for you." Odd said laughing as well.

"Oh yeah than why am I in the same place?"

"Well you got a skip a turn."

"There are none you genius!"

"Oh no my hands are out of control!" Odd said and he knock all of the peices off the board. He and astrid sat there laughing and I notice the others had happily gone back to what they were doing. Brynga looked miffed, probably didnt get the welcome she expected.

I was just about to turn back to the conversation the others were having when Brynga walked over to us and sat down next to me. i shifted nervously and she leaned over to Ulrich so he'd have to notice her.

"What?" Ulrich asked and Odd and Astrid came over to sit down Odd completely ignored Brynga and kept his hand around Astrid's when they sat on the other side of me. I saw Astrid give me a question look. I shrugged, I know as much about this as she does.

When Odd sat down Brynga immediately ignored ulrich and turned to him. "Odd why are you being so cold? You were very nice to me before." She said sweetly, enough to make any guy feel shame.

Everybody was listening now and when Odd didn't say anything Astrid turned to Brynga and held out her hand, "Hi, I'm Astrid. Is nice to meet you." Astrid looked at Brynga as an equal. Even though she was talking to her boyfriend that way.

"Hi I'm Brynga." Brynga said in a sincere tone. I think she was just tired of. Being ignored. A few people in the room must have had nothing better to do and were listening in on the conversation.

"Guys, we have to talk somewhere okay?" You can catch up later." Jeremy said indicating we should leave. No one objected so we got up and left. A few seconds after Brynga got up to follow us.

Jeremy turned around and said, "alone Brynga. This is private."

"If its about the big computer than i still remember it. It would be a shame if my friend, the principles daughter, found out." Brynga said raising an eye brow and smirking.

Ulrich sighed and said, "Fine what will it take for you not to tell?"

"Hmm" smiling she said, "Maybe I would be distracted if Odd would spend some time with me at the pool. He could explain to me why he's so cold now."

Just then Astrid slammed her hand on the door, her eyes burning with shock and anger at Odd and the others. "Hold up!"

Odd's POV

i have never been more scared in my life. Except maybe the almost getting kicked out of the group the first time Brynga was here. Facing Astrid with the angry glare was too much.

"We have a swimming pool?!" She cried in anger and shock. Suddenly relief burned through me and I cracked up. I was so scared she was mad about brynga. But then again why would she? Knowing Astrid I don't think that's something she would get mad about.

"Yeah, you didnt know?" Said Yumi, the others were smiling with relief too.

"Alright, I'll see you guys in a few hours. Which way is it?" Astrid said, deadly serious but smiling. Apparently she realized everyone thought she was really mad and found it funny too.

"Why don't we go together? Do we really need to be at the meeting?" I asked Jeremy and Aelita. They were kinda the boss when it came to this stuff. I don't know if it's really important or not.

"Actually i havent gone swimming in a while. Why don't we all go?" Yumi said. I caught William and Ulrich share a glance but they agreed.

"Well I need to work on a program..." Jeremy said

"I was going to help.. You guys can go though." Aelita said

"No come on you can bring your laptop to the pool if you really need to. You guys deserve a break from that." Astrid said smiling encouragingly. Jeremy and Aelita agreed.

"So meet at the pool in thirty minutes? After we grab our swimsuits?"William suggested and we all agreed.

"Wait." Brynga said just as we were going to disperse. "Don't forget I still know your secret. I'm not afraid to tell the principle. Of course i won't if would spend a little time with me." Ugh, can't she get a hint. My stomach flipped at the though of spending time with her. I'm no longer attracted to her as I once was. Besides I would never do something like that Astrid.

Then astrid leaned over to me and whispered, "This girl is pretty annoying and I'm not going to press on your history with her but let's just say I know where a hockey stick is located. Need me to thwack her with it? I burst out laughing and only managed to shake my head no.

"Well I need an answer!" Brynga said getting impatient.

"Odd can you keep her off our tails?" Jeremy said, dread filled my stomach. This is probably making up for before.

"Fine, Astrid get that hockey stick ready. I'll see you later." I said and squeezed her hand. She was too busy studying Brynga.

"Actually Brynga? It would be a shame for you to spill our secret, and I know you think you have power over us. However let me make one thing clear." She said dangerously and I felt like backing away from her as she took a step towards Brynga. I saw the locket I gave her swing from the chain on her neck. "It would be wise for you to be VERY afraid of spilling the secret. Because for one thing, I am not afraid to spill your secret."

"How, how do you know about that? Are you a stalker or something?" She said losing her Icelandic accent for a second.

"Nope, I'm just good at spotting things. I'll see you later." Astrid said with a smirk on her face and Brynga walked away grumbling.

Ulrich whistled, "Dang who knew you could do that?" He said

astrid shrugged smiling "I learned things from the orphanage. One trick is to pretend you know more than your letting on."

"Wait, you don't know her secret?" Aelita said shocked but smiling.

"Nope, though now I'm really curious as to what it is." Astrid said and at that we all went to go get our stuff for the pool.

**Hey my friends, I just kinda wrote this... I was bored. It won't be the last we see of Brynga though, I'll tell you that. I hope you enjoyed this and I'll start right away one the next one. I getting off of thanks giving break though so things will go just as slowly as before, sorry about that. Anyway thanks for reading and keep up your spirits!**


	13. (7) code: memories visited

Astrid's POV

it had been a few weeks since the last Xana attack and it was all too peaceful. Jeremy was working on a program to rid Aelita of her virus and so far he had made a little progress. We were all sitting at breakfast talking with each other.

" I'm glad today we finally get to do something in the art class." Yumi said, so far all we've done is learn how to use the materials. Basically the first thing we are doing are clay sculptures. I already know what I'm going to make.

"Well it's fun for you guys but for me it's boring. If only I knew my partner." Odd complained since he had gotten a stranger.

"come on it's been three weeks since you got partnered with him, shouldn't you know him by now?" Jeremy said

"Maybe I would, if he wasn't one of those dummies whose always staring at Brynga." Odd said annoyed, I don't blame him. Brynga was only supposed to stay for a week but instead she's spending a semester here. Another thing is she always has her eyes on Odd. I don't care about what happened before but he's my boyfriend now.

"Most of the time she stays away from us though, I think Astrid scared her." William said laughing a bit at the memory of me threatening her. Hey gotta do what you gotta do.

"Heck, she scared ME!" Ulrich said and we all laughed.

i made a cheesy monster face and said, "rawr, imma going to eat you!"

William was right though. She was leaving us alone. Even so I still catch her glancing at Odd every no and then. Today though she must have thought something was different because she came and sat down with us. Every one went silent as she sat down on the other side of Odd.

"Um, something wrong?" I say with fake sincerety. She flashed me an angry look. I stuck my tounge out at her challengingly.

"Actually my dear friend Sissy and I need to speak with you, Astrid" Brynga said, ignoring the shocked looks on every one else's faces.

"And why is that?" I ask

"You'll find out."

"Fine, let's get this over with. I'll be right back guys." I told the others and Odd gave me a worried glance before I left. Walking down the hall some guys turned to stare at Brynga. Most had gotten over her by now but some were just as crazy for her as before. She led me all the way back to Sissy's room.

"Man, don't you guys eat?" I asked sarcastically, you'd think they'd be at breakfast right about now.

"yes. We do for your information." Brynga said through gritted teeth as we walked through the door.

"Whatever, can we please get this over with?" I said, acting oblivious to her see through anger.

Sissy was standing in the room brushing her hair. I walked up to her and clapped. Not as applause but one loud smack of my hands to get her to pay attention.

"calm down just one more second." Sissy said as she brushed through it one more time. "Done."

"How bout you tell me what's up now?" I say annoyed. I want to bea able to finish this before breakfast ended.

"To put it plainly a few weeks ago you said you knew my secret correct." Brynga said in the annoying ice landscape accent.

"Yep" I said sitting down on Sissy's bed.

"Well basically now we know your secret." Sissy said intending for me to react to this. I just sat there on the bed.

"So?" I asked and she looks slightly miffed that I didn't react the way she wanted.

"well you have to do some things for us or we'll tell your little group, especially Odd." Brynga said eavily and I rolled my eyes.

"look I don't even know which secret your talking about." I explain to them and they snicker likes it's a big deal.

"Don't you remember? Your days unconscious in a coma?" Sissy said, that striked a nerve. Yes I was in a coma. And yes it was actually for a long time, ten years in fact. It doesn't matter though. I've put that behind me and done my best to forget about it.

"Oh," I say like it's no big deal. "So that's what your going at. Well I hate to inform you but that's not much of a secret."

"yeah right," sissy says finally feeling some edge on the conversation. "I know it means your really ten years older than everyone here."

"you might also know it means I'm ten years older than you." I say standing up and heading for the door. "Basically I have authority over you, since I am technically an adult." Using this to my advantage is the best solution. Without looking back I walk down the hall and back to the cafeteria. Hopefully I'll be able to finish Breakfast.

When I got back the others were leaving so sighed and grabbed my trey too.

"Astrid your alive! I was betting on you dying of boredom." Ulrich said and mumbled a response. Odd came up beside me after we put up the treys and grabbed my hand. I let mine slip out of his and I ran ahead. I had to much to think about.

The fact is what would they say if they realized I was ten years older then I appear. The doctors said that my body gave no change or growth when I was in the coma so I should just act like everything was fine and normal. But everything wasn't normal. Alex is grown up now, married and out of college. They told me he would visit every day when I first went into a coma but then he went to college and had other things to do. He didn't have room for a high school lover. Tears ran down my eyes as I slipped into my room for the rest of free time. Aelita was kind enough to not come in even though I know they followed me to see where I went.

After a few minutes I dried my tears and made sure I looked okay. When I walked out of the room Odd immediately stood up from his sitting position and took my hand. His intense gaze didn't show question about what it was or anything like that. All it said was are you okay. At that moment I couldn't help myself, I wrapped my arms around him and held him tightly. After a split second he returned the hug.

"Are you okay? What did they do?" Odd asked me urgently as we pulled away. I check the clock to make sure we had enough time.

"It's a long story, I'll tell everyone later okay? Right now I just want to forget about it." And when he still had a questioning look I said, "It's about my past, something I try not to think about it. It's kinda sensitive." I say cautiously, not wanting to spurr more emotions. I will tell every one else, I had never really thought about it since I came here. I guess it had just been good to kinda go back to my time a bit.

"Okay, you don't have to though." Odd said gently. And I smiled. We walked down to the class room I thought some more. What if this turned out like Alex too? Two weeks after our first kiss I fell into the coma. We had been through an adventure together, one that I vowed never to speak of to anyone. During the adventure I fell in love with him, where time was stopped I still changed. He told me he loved me too. Eventually we came back to find no time had past. Even though he loved me it was impossible to wait ten years for me. I have only seen a picture of him since I woke up, my heart was torn out. For me the coma was as short as a minute but in that minute I lost everything I ever loved. All of my friends were grown up, even most of the kids at the orphanage had been adopted. What if this turns out the same way? The doctors said they had no idea why I was in the coma. What if it happens again?

I stop thinking about it. I tighten my grip on Odd's hand and lean on him as we walked. Eventually we reach the class and sit down Next to William. The teacher had already set out the supplies for our clay project so I got to work on mine with out saying a word to anyone. The teacher didn't even notice me and Odd coming in slightly late.

Everyone else in the room was talking so when William started to speak I didn't kick him in the chins like I had to do sometime. "Hey, are you alright?" He said and I turned to look at him.

"yeah, I'm fine." I mumble loud enough for him to hear and turned back to my clay creation. I was making a little ornament for Odd. He can put it on a Christmas tree, it's already december so it's getting close. (**warning not working on European time.) **

"No your not." He says insistently and I swing my head around to face him. My anger fades as I see his concerned bur per distant face.

"I Im going to tell every one later" I say shakily. And this time when I turn back to my work he doesn't refuse. As I sit there working on my Eskimo ornament I think about what I'm going to say. What can I say?

William looked over to me from time to time, I wonder when he started to care about me? I glance over at him and shock myself. For a split second I see the spitting image of Alex. How I never noticed it before I dont know. I blink a few times and William comes back into view, but I can still see the resemblance.

Not being able to resist the urge I ask softly, "William are you somehow related to a man named Alex Bex?"

He looks at me curiously but I still insist he answers. He thinks about it for a few seconds then answers, "yeah, it sounds like the name of one of my cousins. On my mothers side. Why?" He looks at surprise when terror flees across my face. Before he can say or do anything I get up a walk to the teacher.

"May I go to the infirmary? I'm not feeling well." I say and nods and shoos me away. I go back to my desk and snag my bag before running out of the classroom. The only one who seems yo notice are my friends. I see odds questioning look as I pass him and his partner.

I ignore it all. I i get out of the building and walk into the woods. As I move forward I get quicker and quicker until I'm sprinting blindly through the trees. Some how, maybe by instinct I make it to the factory. I climb onto the bridge from a probably dangerous cliff. Running inside I don't go down to the computer. I take twist and turns through he abandoned factory finally settling down and leaning against a wall. My sides heaving.

By sudden impulse I pull out the locket that I got in the mail. Opening the compartment i pull out the paper. I'm ready to see why this is my fate.

**Sup guys, I dedicated this chapter and the next to Astrid. Get ready cause we are finally going to see her past! Hope you guys like it, it's kinda late now so I'll end it and post it. Thanks!**


	14. Code: confused? Me too

Astrid's POV

I touched the piece of paper and my beginning started flowing again. I could see the orphanage I grew up in and the people I cared for. They hadn't liked me much but they were all I had. I wasn't able to shut off the world like others had been, I needed someone.

A doctor came in and checked the babys temperature, well I guess my temperature. After she gave me what looked like a full check up she tucked me in and left he room. The other ladies there left as well and to my surprise the image followed them. I touched my finger to ghe ragged paper to stop it once more. Why would the image follow them, what was the true purpose of this?

"You won't find much answers in that." A voice said, I immediately jumped to my feet and searched for the person that carried the voice. Stepping out from the shadows was a teenage boy about my age. He looked at me fondly, like we had been friends for a while and he expected me go know him. He had short brown hair and blue eyes. He was slightly taller then me but he was still childish looking. I narrowed my eyes at him and laughed.

"Astrid don't tell me you don't remember? I guess not, I'm ten years older than the last time you saw me." He said and when I still looked confused he added, "it's Jimmy, from the orphanage, you know. You would always play tag with me. I was 7 years old?" Memories flashed through me as I remembered the little boy who would always stick close to me. I felt like I needed to protect him since he was so young. Well, was. Looking at him I could see the little boy in him. Freckles all over his face and the cut on his chin.

"You, Oh! Jimmy!" I said flustered and I ran up to hug him. He embraced me and happiness swelled inside of me. He was a brother to me, maybe not by blood but by the bonds we made. "You've grown up. Just like every one else I guess. Man I feel like an old lady around every one!" I Said happy but exasperated. Sometimes the hard part was seeing how everyone grew up without you.

"I really hope it wasn't too hard on you." He said as we pulled away. Suddenly I remembered my shock at someone being here.

"What are you going here!?" It's dangerous! " I say glancing at some of the rotting floor boards. I could have gotten hurt myself on my way over here.

"Don't worry I steer clear of the Xana thing. I go to school a few miles away from here. Don't look so surprised Astrid I've been hanging out here since they discovered Xana, I've been able to hear something's." He said as my mouth opened in shock. If he knew this entire time why didn't he do something? Then again jimmy was always the type of person to just be there, never participate.

"I, What? I." I stammered and he looked at his watch.

"I gotta go, don't tell the others I know please. I've kept your secret so please keep mine." He said as he turned and ran away mysteriously through the maze of hall ways.

After about a half an hour I finally made it back to the main area of the factory. I could see Odd and William leaving the factory. Had they been searching for me?

"Odd, William!" I called and they turned in surprise. My bad mood had shifted after meeting Jimmy, however I couldn't tell them about him. I kinda sort a almist promised to keep it a secret.

They turned to look and started running over here when they saw me. As I took a few steps forward though my vision got blurry, and before I knew it I was falling to the ground.

Odds POV

I was going to go after Astrid to help but Yumi held me off. It was pretty easy to tell it was more than going to the infirmary. However despite my protest Yumi told me to leave her. I glare at William though, but he was obviously confused. After the class we went to the vending machine that acted as a regular spot to chat in between classes.

"What did you do?" I asked William angrily. He just shook his head.

"I don't know, it had something to do with my cousin, Alex. But he's about ten years older than me so I don't see how she would know him..." He trailed off, even though he was confused I saw more than concern on his face.

"On a different note." Yumi said sighing, she probably knew best out of us how to handle these things. "Did you guys hear about that burglar who broke out of that police car with no outside help?" she asked.

"Yeah, I think his name was Peter Duncan." Ulrich said and I looked at the surprised. I hadn't heard anthing on that.

"Would it have anything to do with Xana?" William asked

"No defiantly not, there are no activated towers anywhere." Jeremy said walking over with aelita.

"Ow..." Aelita moaned and held her hand to her head.

"Are you okay?" We all asked at once. And nodded her head.

"Yeah I just didn't sleep well last night, I'm fine." She said picking up her stuff as the bell rang to go to class.

"We have a math test right now will you be okay?" Jeremy asked and she nodded her head. Yumi and William walked to their class and every one else all headed to math, fun.

We sat down at our desk and our teacher put the papers on our desk.

"All right you have this period to finish the test. huh? Does anyone know where Mrs. Hax is?" Our teacher asked.

"She's in the infirmary mam, she had a headache." Ulrich said as politely and convincing as he could.

"Okay, she can make the test up then. Well start." She said and started walking around to watch how we're doing.

I had promised Astrid I would work better on my grades but she gav up on tutoring me after he saw how bad I was. She just laughed it off and told me to try. But right now I had absolutely no idea what this question was.

"Ulrich, what's the answer to number two?" I whisper to Ulrich but Mrs. Meyer uses her teachers hear everything power.

"0, Odd." She said hardly stopping to pay attention.

"Oh yeah, that's right." I say nervously, "Good job."

"No I mean that's the grade you'll get if you keep trying to cheat!" She says angrily and stay quiet for the rest of the test.

"Oh..." Aelita, who was in front of me moaned.

Jeremy and Ulrich also turned to her as she suddenly fell unconscious to the floor.

"Aelita!"

We all sat at the hospital waiting for the doctor to tell us if she was okay. I had call and texted Astrid several times but she hadn't answered. It was strange because shes not the person to purposely miss a phone call, even if she is upset.

"Well, she's doing fine. That kids got a real guardian angel though.." The doctor said as he came to tell us how she's doing.

"Can we go see her?" We asked.

"Well I don't see why not, but be careful. She needs to rest."

We waked down to her room and she was happy to see us walk In.

"you feeling okay?" Yumi asked and she nodded.

"Im fine." Aelita said. and we all sighed in relief.

"You don't think this has anything to do with an activated tower do you?" Ulrich asked Jeremy. And he shook his head.

"No, theres still no activated tower, but it can't hurt to go to the factory And check." Jeremy said anxiously.

" We'll go with you." Me, William,Ulrich said and we headed off to the factory. Maybe we'll find Astrid there. She'll be upset she missed this. However foursome reason I have this nervous feeling in my stomach, why hasn't she come back yet? Well, maybe she has. What if she went back to the school and we weren't there? The again, if she did that why hasn't she called? I'm probably going crazy, arguing with myself.

When we arrived a the factory I was just about to go down the wires when Ulrich, William, and Jeremy suddenly pulled me to the side and covered my mouth so I didn't make any noise. Slowly Ulrich put his finger to his mouth to show silence, then he removed his hamd from my mouth and gestured below us.i looked over the wall to see Astrid sitting with her back to the wall and William ane I standing over her, I could vaguely hear the worried words, are you okay.

I looked over to Ulrich and then pinched myself as if to show I'm not a clone. I glance at William and he widened his eyes to show he had no Xana marks. I don't think That's an Astrid clone either so what's going on? Something in my gut instinct ly wanted to rush down there to protect Astrid. No one was going o hurt her. Looking more closely I thought of the perfect idea.

"Jeremy, toss me your phone." I whispered as quietly as I could. He handed me his phone and I dialed Astrid's number. Then I handed it back to Jeremy. He understood and waited for Astrid to pick up. In a few seconds I heard a ute little ring tone that I assume is Astrid's. I peeked around the corner to watch as Astrid looked at her phone in surprise and picked up.

"_Hello?_" I heard through the phone and Jeremy got up and silently started walking away from our hiding spot so the clones couldn't hear.

"Astrid, the two in front of you aren't the real Odd and William. Trust me. Is there anyway you could try to get them away from there so we can get to Lyoko? Well try to figure on out at least." Jeremy wispered and there was silence for a second. Then she said.

"_What are you doing back there? Oh well fine, I'll take Odd and William there. Still why would you? Never mind. I'll see you in a few." _ for a few seconds we all sat there in shock as she hung up. Then I peeked around the corner one more time to see her leading the clones into some of the back rooms we've never explored. She stumbled a few times, something must have happened. Why is she.. Acting like sh just fell and bumped her head? I put the thought aside as we all raced towards the elevator.

**Hey guys. I'm sure a lot of you noticed this one was actually an episode. Well adding William, Astrid, and Jimmy. Truth be told I wanted to finish it, as in the episode frame, in this chapter but I've taken a while and I want to get this out. Also I need to go back and watch that episode for the third time today so I can actually grasp the frame of it and how I should do it. Well anyways I hope you guys liked the part with Jimmy and all. Hmm I think I'm forgetting something... Oh yeah! Sorry about not actually revealing Astrid's whole past. I have sone thing I really need to touch up on. But don't worry. I haven't forgotten about other things like the mysterious buried treasure or whatever. Honestly I had no idea where I was going with that when I wrote it, however now I do so it will be brought in shortly. anywho thank you guys for reading and I'll post again soon! See you! :)**


	15. Code: Maze

Williams POV

Just as we made it into the elevator a thought came to my head. I stepped out before it started to close and said.

"Wait, ill go protect Astrid. Just in case." as I said it they nodded. I have a feeling Odd would've come to if the door wasn't closing. I looked around for a few seconds, anything that can help me Fight those things. I pick up a convenient pipe and swing it once to get the feel of it. glancing around i don't see anything else. I guess I've gotta try and find her now. Looking into the hallway she went in, there seems to be a whole lot of turns.

Oh well, I better just go in anyways. I go straight for most of the way but take a few occasional turns. After what seems like a half an hour I finally hear something.

"Gaaah! These things are so hard to navigate! I can't remember where it is. Do you two?" Astrid's soft voice said from not too far away. I started running in that direction. Trying to be as silent as I can I follow the voices that I hear.

"Astrid I hear someone coming." My own voice said and I stopped in my tracks. That can't be a good thing.

" Hmm, do you? I didn't hear anything." Astrid said, with a hint of exasperation. Peeking around the corner I see them with they're backs leaned against the wall. Astrid looked alert but at the same time tired. Like she didn't sleep any the night before.

"Harrah!" I hear as I'm flattened to the ground by an unknown force. Twisting and struggling I break away from my captor and scramble away. I stood up and felt Astrids back against mine.

"Promise me your the real William." She said

"I promise, where have you been? Are you okay? Aelita had some sort of heart attack. Odd and Ulrich went to lyoko to see if they could find an activated tower. The super scanner was bugged up." I said quickly as the two clones start walking towards us. We don have much time before we have to defend ourselves.

"What!? Is she okay? Wait the supercomputers messed up? What happened while I was gone? I had problems of my own... It's a long story but is everyone okay?" She says worryingly, as a matter of fact I have no idea what's going on. It's been a while since I started looking for her.

"I've been gone for a while, finding you in here wasn't easy. I have no idea what's happening now." I say dodging a punch thrown by a clone. This isn't exactly the best hime to be catching up. Just as my clone was about to throw a punch too they flickered. At the exact same moment Astrid started clutching her head. The specters dissapeared and Astrid collapsed to the floor.

"Astrid!" I called shocked and bent to her side. I knelt beside her and put my head to her chest. It took a few moments but her heart was still beating, slowly. Wildly I looked around. Anything, anything. I hear a faint noise of some sort of machine. Maybe it was the supercomputer. Not knowing what else to do I pick Astrid up and start to walk in the direction I think I came from. After walking for another minute she suddenly gasp awake in my arms. I kneel to the ground and gently lay her down.

"What? Huh? What happened?" She said a confused look glazed over her eyes. When she meets my eyes though it disappears. She stares at me in shock but icky shakes herself. Then she smiles up at me, until then I hadn't realized I had stopped breathing. I gulped in a quick breath and start breathing heavily.

"You okay?" I ask calming my breathing. She laughs and says

"Yes I'm fine. Thank you." As the last letter leaves her mouth a look appears on her face that Dissapeared to quickly for me to make out.

"Before you ask, it's a long story. Besides, the bump on your head has gotten bigger." When I said that she drew her hand up to her head. I'm guessing she had a fall earlier.

"Don't worry, I don't need to ask. I already know what happened. It's happened before." She said carefully, as if not to stir up feelings. She tried to get up but she was weak still. She let out a little squeak as I picked her up but i know she needs to recover for a minute. We don't want those Xana things to come back with her like this. I nearly peed myself when my phone rang. Setting Astrid down I reached in my pocket, but when I pulled it out it stopped ringing in the middle of its third ring. Confused I look to see who it was.

"Jeremy?" I say confused, "Wait a second...3:00! It's three in the afternoon! Have we really been gone that long!" I sag in disbelief. Astrid pulls out her phone to check.

"Well, technically it's two fifty eight in the after noon." She says, standing up after having time to rest.

"Great, that helps." I say sarcastically and Astrid smiles. Humors about all we got here. "On a different note, do you know how to get out if here? " I ask hopefully but she shekels her head.

"No, I haven't a clue. I don't know what I was thinking bringing those two clones in here." She says hopelessly. We stand there in silence for a minute or two, neither of us knowing what to do. Suddenly Astrid smacks her first into her other palm and says, "I got it! I remember my old physic teacher telling me that in a maze if you put your right hand on the wall to your right, and walk forward following that wall, you will eventually get to the exit! This should be pretty much the same concept!"

"Which right wall?" I say turning around. Each wall could be considered right depending on which way your going.

"Thats the beauty! It doesn't matter which, both should get you to the end!" She says smiling broadly. I smile back at her despite my doubts that it won't work. At least it's our best shot.

We both put our hands to the wall and walked. And walked, and walked. Eventually neither one of us really felt like holding up a conversation and Astrid kept getting lost in thoughts. Eventually I heard footsteps coming in our direction. I turn around quickly and at the end of the long hall way we are walking in the two clones turn the corner.

"Astrid." I warned and after a quick glance we both start running. Neither of us want anything to do with those guys. After a few minutes I could hear Astrid fall to the ground once again. "No!" skidding to a hault I turn around and run back to astrid. I scoop her up into my arms without looking to see where the clones were. I started running the way she told me to, following the right side of the wall. After a few minutes she woke up again. This time I dint set her din I just sat down and leaned hip against me.

"I'm getting sick of that." She said humorously and I laughed in relief. She can't be able to take much more of this, whatever's happening. Immediately she tried to sit up but I held her back.

"Whoa, hold on there. You fell a total of three times today. Hitting your head on all of them. Take it easy." I said worried.

"I feel fine now though. besides we have to get out of here." She said standing iup with ease. I shook my head in exasperation but she didnt give up. Looking at her ,though, I could tell she some how felt better. There was no sign of exhaustion in her eyes and she was bouncing up and down, ready to get aaa move one.

"Okay, let's just go help the others." I said and we started running again on our rightside path.

Astrids POV

Finally, finally we made it out of that dumb system of hallways. My stomach growling and heart racing we ran into the elevator. Tapping my foot I anxiously awaited what we would find. As soon as the doors opened we ran inside. Only to find no one there.

"What's this?" William asked and I pulled out my phone. Hopefully Odd will pick up. Right before I press the first number I get a phone call.

"Hello?" I asked hesitantly

"Where are you? Are you okay?! You missed a lot. " Odd said worriedly and I instantly felt a stab of guilt. If I hadn't gone running off we wouldn't be in this mess.

"It's hard to explain, but yes I'm fine. Williams here too. Where are you guys though? I would've sworn there was an activated tower. Why aren't you at the factory?" I asked and Odd was silent for a moment.

"Come to my room!" He said quickly and suddenly I heard twuck! As the phone hit water. Curious I told William and we hurried back as quick as we could. Ten minutes later we opened the door to Odds room. This time everyone was sitting down in the middle of a rough conversation. Everyone looked up as we walked in. Odd gave me a smile full of relief and contentment. I sat down next to Odd and William sat down next to Yumi. The momentarily bright attitude of getting everyone together was soon put out again.

"Did you fall?" Odd asked suddenly breaking the silence. His fingers were brushing he spot on my head where I had manage to hit every single time I fell. Thinking back to the black outs I had brought on a wave nausea. I was so scared every time I fell that it would be like the time ten years before when I didn't wake up for years. At the thought I gave an involuntary shiver.

"Yeah, a few times." I said quietly and Odd looked at me shocked.

" A few!?" He said amazed I had fallen more than once.

"I'm guessing there's a story to that. We need to tell you what happened with us too. It might make more sense if we go first. " Ulrich said and they all started explaining the Peter Duncan thing, along with Aelita and the factory's battery. All of it made my head ache more. Something however seemed a little Odd. They said that it had problems two times, then Jeremy shut it off to put the new battery in. I black out.. Three times as well, is there any connection?

"Wait but," William said and we gave each other a knowing look. Something's wrong with this. Instead of sharing what we thought was wrong, as everyone was asking, we took turns telling what happen. Most of it though was trying to get out of the dang hallway system. After we were done we sat in silence. Odd squeezed my hands gave me a reassuring smile. Then he brought his hand back up to the bump on my head. It hadn't gone down yet And it still throbbed. I felt a wave of exhaustion and all I want to do is go to sleep.

"Astrid what was wrong? Why did you black out so many times?" Ulrich asked and Yumi jabbed him with her elbow. It's pretty obvious by this point.

"The super computer. When it was off both Aelita and Astrid were effected. " Jeremy thought out loud. Suddenly I remember this morning, I guess it's now or never.

"Listen, I have something I should probably tell you guys. Although I'm not sure how much it relates to this." I say hesitantly. If everyone wasn't already staring at me I'm sure they would be now. Odd squeezed my hand encouragingly and i went on.

"You see, to put it plainly. I'm really about ten years older than... What I look." when everyone was silent I continued. "

"About eleven years ago I went into this coma out of the blue. I didn't wake up from the coma until ten years later. That's what Brynga and Sissi were trying to pull. They wanted to blackmail me with it. But the thing is, while I was in the coma I dint grow. In fact to my body it was as if I had just closed my eyes, thats what the doctors told me and this what it felt like. Last year, when I woke up from the coma, it was hard. A lot of things had changed. I dint have any family and all of my friends were well, grown up. I probably should have told you earlier but, Ive been trying to forget about it. After all there's nothing I can do." I explain slowly but quickly too. Trying to think of a good way to explain but an easy way go. I stared at the ground and waited for whatever there reply would be.

"Im sorry," aelita said and we all looked at her in surprise.

"Aelita its fine, Its all behind me now. I just felt everyone should know." I said quickly but aelita looked up at me with sadness and guilt.

"Don't you see? Your somehow connected to the supercomputer. The thing my dad created." She said and I sat there confused until it finally hit me. She was trapped in the supercompuer for ten years too. Most likely the exact time I was. That explains why I blacked out. Everyone seemed to hit this conclusion together, and we sat in silrnce for a few minutes.

"Its not your fault, or your dads. However how exactly am I connected to the supercomputer?" I asked and look at jeremy who's thinking hard on how I am.

"Maybe you can find out by the locket." Odd wispered in my ear so the others wouldn't hear. I looked at him greatfully that he didnt say we. But the next time I open that thing I want it to with Odd. Or william, I thought suddenly. Where did that come from. I pushed the thought out of my mind.

"The same time as Aelita... We need to figure out how to stop it. Or something, if not finding Aelita's antivirus will be pointless." Yumi said worryingly, I looked at her with gratitude and friendship. A sunder reminder of my past experience with adventures and friends who wouldn't leave me threatened to flood my thoughts. I pushed my thoughts away from me again and focused on Jeremy's steady voice.

"I can scan you to try and find something. This could take a while, because we have no clue as to why your involved with the supercomputer." Jeremy said and a wave of exhaustion rushed over me. Just then my stomach grumbled loudly and everyone laughed.

"What? I didn't have lunch... Or breakfast... and I to tired to go down to dinner." I said and produced a long yawn. Everyone laughed again and I smiled. I love my friends.

**Miss me? I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've had a lot to do (studying), and I had a concert. It's complicated but hopefully this should tie you over till I can produced the next chapter. I've had a lot of fun with this fanfiction and it's the only one I can stay committed to. Thank you guys for being supportive! Stay creative! **


	16. (8) Code: memories an old times

Odds POV

A week or two after the confusing incident with Astrid and he supercomputer and Aelita, we are in our last week of school. They've decided to have a winter dance, we've all signed up to help and Astrid was boosting me to tape a streamer to the wall.

"I could've boosted you ya know." I say, I didn't particularly like being on top of my girlfriends shoulders.

"No trust me,I would've freaked. I don't do heights." She says laughing and I hop down. The streamers were falling from the ceiling in straight lines. I have absolutely no idea how we came up with that design. I laughed at the simplicity of it and started gathering the materials. One job done, maybe we can go and help out one of the others. After all there was still some work to do before tomorrow night. We walked over to Aelita and Jeremy who were getting ready go post the cheesy flyers everywhere.

"Need help, we finished with our job." Astrid says and Jeremy raises an eyebrow at our pathetic excuse for a design. Neither me or Astrid really liked the job of putting up streamers.

"Pay no attention to the catastrophe behind us." I said in a bugs bunny voice. Astrid and Aelita giggled and Jeremy snickered. I kicked his shoe lightly and he handed us half if their flyers.

"The only reason is cause Jeremy and I can go work on a new program after this." Aelita said smiling. I don't think she really cares about the flyer job. By the looks of it neither does Jeremy. I snagged a roll of tape and Astrid and I ran off to go put up the flyers. Even though it would've been more efficient to seep rate we stayed with each other and talked.

"So what's the best Christmas present you've ever gotten?" She asked and I pondered it for a second.

"Well you see I used to have this tamagotchi toy. It was really fun too. It wasn't a Christmas present but I really liked it. Does that count?" I asked and she shakes her head with a sly smile.

"Hmm well in that case a few years ago I got this set of walky-talkies, those were the best." I start and go on explaining about how I would prank my sisters and cousins.

"It is not right for a girl to be rudely interrupted and scared during a shower. Trust mei know." Astrid said shivering but smiling too. I laughed, I'm guessing there's a good story behind that.

"Well what's the best gift you've ever gotten?" I asked her and she stops. A look of deep sadness flashes on her face along with regret and longing.

"A necklace, in the shape of a torche. the flame was white and jewels were around the handle in a random pattern. They were all blue. Across the top of the handle was a little bar with snowflakes sticking out of it. There was a single wing on the left side. On the back was a little mechanism. It would be able to attach to create a whole torche. Oh, the torche was kinda split down the middle. But it would only attach with the matching wing.." She trailed off But quickly caught herself. We continued on tapong the flyers everywhere.

"Why don't you where it anymore?" I say before I can stop myself. She looks shocked for a moment as if just remembering she doesn't have it on.

"Oh, I... I gave it to a friend a while ago. Ha, I gues a LONG while ago." She says laughing. And the mood is suddenly lightened. I gaze at her smiling for a few moments until she looks at me with that bright smile of hers. I turn away shyly and we keep on chatting, more casually now, about things we would do if we could design anypartty we wanted to. Throwing money out the window.

"I guess we're all done." Astrid said as we put up our last flyer. "Wanna take a brake and get something for lunch? I've got to pick up so mail so I'll meet you there."

"You hardly ever get mail." I say curiously, I wondered who couldve mailed her something.

"Probably Christmas cards." She said casually but I saw another wave of sadness flash in her eyes of a moment. thenshe gave me a bright smile and walked towards the office. I headed back to lunch, wondering why I didn't walk with her.

Astrids POV

I picked up the mail and sat down at a bench to open them. I had five letters and most of them were from old orphanage girls that I made Frieda with. However I alsogot one from Jimmy, Gwen, and go my surprise, Alex. Jimmy and Gwen were my other best friends. Alex, Jimmy, Gwen, and I all went on the adventure I vowed never to think about again. Jimmy and Gwen's cards were kind and sentimental. They both wrote a small letter saying we should all meet sometime during Christmas breaks. Even though my heart skipped happily after seeing two of my best friends still thinking about me, the one I wanted to open badly was the one from Alex. My hands shook as I carefully peeled open the card. Inside were a card, a letter, and a small package.

I quickly scanned the card and read it over again.

'_I hope by the time you get this everything will be fine again. Right now you have just gone into a coma. I visit you everyday but nothing has changed. You already know I'm bad at writing and this isn't much of a Christmas card but my heart tears at the thought of you never waking up. I suppose I'm only writing this to appease my own worries, but I mean it all the same. I love you Astrid, and I wish you a merry Christmas.'_

I read the card over a few more times and look at the date on it. This was the first Christmas after I went into a coma. The first Christmas after that stupid supercomputer ruined my life. Anger swelled inside of me for a second until it dissapears all at once. Being angry won't help, loving him still won't either. I simply have to let all my feelings go. I set down the card and pick up the fresh later, the date that states it was written last week. My breathing stops for a second, staring at this letter I haven't begun to read terrifies me. I've already been rejected silently, I would've preferred not to have a verbal one at all. I start reading.

'_dear Astrid. I wrote that letter a long time ago. Nine years to be precise. I was worried then, and I never stopped worrying. Even after you woke up, I was already married, I didn't have the courage to look you in the eye and tell you I had gone off and loved another girl. But now, even after you've already had time to get over it, I want to tell you what I've done. I've gone and fallen back in love with literally the same girl I loved ten years ago. My wife noticed, and before long she divorced me. After all I couldn't even pretend to love her the way I love you. I guess not even time can stop true love huh? Isn't that what the monk told us? I guess he knew all along. Or maybe he didn't. As you can see I'm still awful at writing, let me get back to the point. I know it must be awkward imagining me as a twenty some year old man, but I don't care. I hope you don't either. I want to talk to you,in real life. But for now I'll just give you my email and phone number. Also there's one more gift I have to give you. Or return I guess. Do you remember the last Christmas we shared? You gave me a little red heart made out of wood On a necklace. I've never stopped carrying that around with me. I want to give it back to you, maybe you've missed having your heart. That's what we used to joke about remember? Or maybe I've been keeping it active too long. Either way I can't bare giving it all away. I broke it in half, I need some thing remind me of you. It's in this letter. This letter is getting too long, but there's just one thing I have left to say. _

_I love you, always._

As I finished the letter I read it again several times. Impossible, but he did. Coming out of my trance I place the letters carefully in my bag and head to lunch. I'll message him later. It's not right to odd for me to be mixed up in all of this. I don't want him to suffer. Even as I say this to myself all the way go lunch I can't deny two facts. I love Alex, but I love Odd too. I pushed my thoughts away as I walked to the cafeteria.

"Hey sorry I'm Late" I say casually as I sit down to a table full of conversation.

"hmm, well now that your here you can help me debate my argument on our awesome streamer design." he said with a smile and I remember the pitiful excuse for a design. Laughing I rooms night of my food and thought for a second.

" Awesome design? Come on you two barely thought of any thing." Ulrich said Aelita frowned. I looked over to her and she raised an eyebrow, smiling to indicate shouldn't worry.

"I think it's a perfect symbol of our school." a voice says just as I open my mouth. I turn around and am hit with a a wave of dread. Ugh, Brynga again. That girl must plan on staying here per anatomy. "Of course is that the only thing you can think to talk about?" She smiles like she won something and I moan, I really hate this girl.

"Well it was a much better conversation until you joined it. In fact I officially veto you out of it. Goodbye." I say and turn around from her unamused face. Hey she can deal with it. Just as she was about to say something Jeremy interrupted.

"actually there is something we need to talk to you about." Jeremy said officially, looking up from his lunch. The others seemed to realize what he meant, every one except me.

"We want you to know that we don't take black mailing lightly, never have never will." Yumi said with a dangerous look in her eye that must go back to something I don't know of.

"So if you ever try to pull something like that again." Aelita said, looking at her now she looked dangerous. Normally I thought of her as a sweet peaceful girl, but oh geesh I wouldn't want to be on the other side of this glare.

"we will nit hesitate." Ulrich said pure loathing came from this glare.

"To make you regret it." Both Odd and William said simultaneously. Odd stood up with his hand still in mine. I couldn't resist smiling till I thought my cheeks would burn. I have such good friends, I'll make sure to let them know.

Brynga huffed, clearly more disappointed then scared. She swung her beautiful hair back and walked away. I stuck my tongue out at her as she walked away. Then I turned and smiled broadly at everyone. That was pretty cool what they did. they all smiled back at me and we ate the rest of our lunch in a silent happy mood.

just as we were about to head back to the gym to continue our decorations my phone rang. Odd looked at me with an eyebrow raised. I hardly ever got phone calls, except from...

"Hello?" I asked cautiously into the phone. Terror coursed through me as I heard the other side.

_"Hello Astrid. It's Kathy Bethers. Remember me? Your due for another check up tomorrow night. After that you will stay at the orphanage until after your winter break. I presume you have no other school work you will be doing in_ classes?" Oh great! Tomorrow night? Our break is there days away. Well really two. We won't be doing anything god the next_ few_ days. Besides, all classes were canceled for people working on the dance. I groaned inwardly at the thought of explaining everything to the doctors. They always want to know every detail of what's been happening.

"Yes mam, I'll be able to come. What time will I be picked up?" I ask walking away from the others so they wont hear. Still I can tell odd heard something judging be the more than curious look on his face.

"5:30, I believe you have a dance tomorrow right. you'll have go skip it." She said unsympathetically. the dance starts at 4:30, maybe I'll be able to go for half of it.

"Yes mam. thank you. Goodbye." I say and hang up. Odd will be disappointed but maybe this way none of them will feel bad about me being at the orphanage during Christmas. Besides since I've kept my grades up maybe I'll be able to stay at the school during break. Oh well. That'll have to be discussed later. I put a happy smile on my face as I walked back go my friends who were politely waiting. Who knows maybe going back to the orphanage dill be fun. Maybe I can visit someone during break. heading back to the gym we continued talking about me and Odds pitiful design.

Maybe.

**Hi guys! I want to thank you for staying with me all this time. I hope my story continues to be enjoyable to you and give me any suggestions if you want. However I've seen a few stories where the author will ask for a review before they write another chapter. I don't want to do that. I'm happy with my reviews right now and I'm really happy with how my story is going. So I want to tell you guts thank you. Nothing more. Nothing like please post a review or because I got a review Im posting this chapter. IF you want go right a review you can but I know its bothersome and easy to forget. So I say my words now. **

**Thank you.**

**now after that I want to tell you I know what you might be thinking. Three romance figures of Astrid, that's too much right! Well I wasn't my story to last a while. A long while. I'm even planning on doing multiple sequels. So along with some well needed more action I will bring alot of details into this story. But don't worry! I will try to make it as un confusing as I can. anyways I'll close off here. This is getting to be a long note. Bye!**


	17. Code: jokes or snow?

Astrid's POV

I ran into the gym, trying to get away from the three nimbisuls chasing me. Running into the streamers we put up I let out a squeak as Ulrich nearly caught me.

"Astrid you'll pay for that!" Ulrich yelled laughing even though he was trying to be mean. I had accidentally ,not really, poured a bouncy of sticky glitter covered in perfume all over Odd, William, and Ulrich. All three were chasing mr through the school. Yumi, Aelita, and I made the concoction during our break. Jeremy had only been spared because he was in the bathroom. I had been the one chosen to dump it on them so Yumi and Aelita were off the hook.

"Only if you can catch me!" I called running into the girls bathroom. Aelita and Yumi were in there laughing. We had made this our base because even they wouldn't go in here.

"we'll get you back!" William yelled amusement in his tone. None of them were really mad. After all we've been doing this to each other all day. After getting that phone call I was determined go brighten my mood. Me and odd had walk around holding hands for a while, which always brightens my mood. However I'll admit it, I was the one who pranked first. It was only a bit of shredded paper in Odds hair though. We've been going at each other for a while a while now though.

"If only there was a window in here, we could sneak out through that." Yumi said, specipulating our escape. Still breathing heavily I sat down against a wall.

" Hmm, they seemed to be walking away. Oh nope. They're leaving William for guard." Aelita reported. Peeking out carefully.

finally with my breathing under control I stand up and start pacing. "One of us could run out and distract William. But the question is what after that? Where else can we go to be safe." I say in a war commander tone. I think we were all liking this way too much. Aelita and I waited for a second as Yumi ran out right after she did. With William distracted by Yumi I led Aelita out of the gym and through the hall. Soon we could hear footsteps behind us.i turned for a split second to see Yumi followed closely by William with Odd and Ulrich close behind. Soon Yumi was able to catch up with means Aelita and we all ran.

"Quick!" I yell as another safe zone appears. As we run into the bathroom I slam into the wall and yumi and Aelita crash into me. We quickly scramble out of they're sight and start laughing as soon as we can breath. I here the boys cursing outside, making me laugh even harder. We high five each and locate exactly where we are.

"Well we're in the bathroom close to a door that goes out side. Maybe we can use that to our advantage." Aelita said speculating on a battle plan.

"hmm well we could do that but opening the doors would take too long. Especially if all three of them are out there." Yumi said and something hit me.

"Well three of them are out there but what about jeremy? Maybe we could make him be on our side. After all we've been easy on him." I say and Yumi and Aelita smile.

"Wait! Maybe instead of Jeremy we can call two other friends.." Yumi said and Aelita apparently caught on to what she was saying.

"Maybe our favorite reporters could help us. In exchange for a scoop." Aelita wispered, our voices now low so the guys won't hear.

"Like inside winter dance decorating committee fun." I say finally catching on to who they were talking about. Yumi and I pulled out our phones and rang up Kadic academy's favorite reporters.

Aelita just finished texting Jeremy. He agreed to be on our team if he could instead keep working on Aelita's anti-virus. We agreed sighing at his lack of eagerness to do this. I thought it was fun. Although Jeremy does work hard, I can't really complain. However I do know Aelita will be forcing him to come to the winter dance tonight.

"Will you girls come out of hiding already?!" Odd called slight annoy but still in a good mood. I peeked my head out and stuck my tongue out at him. I quickly pulled my head back in as I heard them laughing.

"Are we ready?" I asked Yumi and Aelita who were creating our distraction. A perfume grenade. I had offered mine since I'm not into that stuff. Frankly I don't even know why I had it on me. I guess Aelita might have slipped it in my bag as a joke.

"nearly...okay done." Yumi said and we walked over silently to the door.

"Ready?" Aelita asked and we nodded.

"1"

"2"

"3"

"Go Go Go!" We yelled as Yumi through the "bomb" out and we bolted. The boys saw the bottle of perfume and ran away, we took this opportunity to book it out of there. We ran straight to the door, which Millie and Tamara were holding open for us, and then sprinted for the hermatage. Running under the freezing cloudy day without a jacket made me want to climb inside an oven. I didn't have a jacket on a not even running this hard could warm me up.

Soon we made to the hermatage and stopped for a minute. All three of us stood there trying to catch our breaths.

"You know" I say between breaths amusement heavy in my tone, "We should...get back to work of the dance." the truth is we still have a lot of work to do. Yumi and Aelita nodded but judging by the look in ther eyes we all knew this wasn't finished.

"Now!" The called split through the air as the three guys jumped out of no where. Shocked fear coursed through me aa us three girls bolted each in our direction.

"Split up!" I called but the others had already gotten the point. After running in on direction for a few seconds I spotted Odd behind me.

Already tired from our earlier sprint my legs quickly tired. I turned a hard left, the sky looks like it will snow soon. I ran harder but I was hardly paying attention to the run any more. Looking into the sky I couldn't see even a sliver of sunlight. Even though not much time could've past, it looks dark.

"Ouff!" I groaned as Odd tumbled into me. We rolled on the ground colliding with a tree. With Odd holding me tightly but not uncomfortably a snowflake driftsdown and lands on the grass in between us. I look at Odd and his eyes are full of love. It doesn't take me long to realize my eyes are too.

He stands up brushing off the dirt on his legs and then helps me up. Still breathing heavily I lean against the tree we ran into. Odd puts his hands on my arms and rubbs them, a frown appearing on his face.

"you should wear a sweater if your going to go outside when it's this cold." Odd wispers and the frown drains from his face. I try to hide the fact that I'm shivering but he already notices. I stare into his eyes and he wraps his arms around me. As the snow falls, heavire now, i lean in close to him. Our lips brush and neither hesitates as we we press the against each other. The snow practically a storm now we kiss, softly but sweet.

Odds POV

If I would've known it was such a bad storm I would've kissed for just a bit longer. Watching her white hair swish beuatifully in the snow mesmerized me. When we pulled apart the snow was whirling angrily around us. It was almost to hard to see through. I grabbed Astrid's hand securly and we trudged against the wind. I turn to look at Astrid for a moment and she has a look of fear on her face.

Her mouth moves but the snow is too heavy for me to hear. Quickly I realized how bad of a situation we are in. The snow around us has unnaturally turned into a blizzard, when there was only call for light snow. I pulled Astrid and she woke up from the state of shock she was in. We trudged on until we finally mad it into school grounds.

We ran to the door and pushed ourselves inside.

"You two, all you alright? Nevermind jym, take the two to the others. Quockly there freezing." Mr Delmas said while Jym came and picked up Astrid who let out a protesting squeek. Even though she capible of walking herself the look of worry in jyms eyes kept me from saying anything. We walked down to a basement like room where the rest of the school seemed to be huddled.

"Jym, I'm fine. Can you let me down please." Astrid said, and watching her I have to admit she right. Even though it's still freezing in here she wasn't shivering anymore, even though I was. Jym reluctantly put her down and our hands immediately intertwined. We walked into the room and Jeremy immediately stood up and ran over to greet us.

"Are you guys okay? where are the others?" Jeremy asked as we sat down. A blanket was thrown over me and Astrid, but Astrid wrapped me in it. I protested but she apparently wasn't effected by the cold.

"No, We had all splt up right before it started to snow." Astrid said clearly, how can she not be cold? She was freezing outside but even then she wasn't as cold as she should've been. Right now her arms were with only a tshirt on.

"oh great, if you couldn't guess there's an activated tower! What are we going to do?" Jeremy said. Just perfect, the one thing we need on a fun day anticipating a fun night is a Xana attack. Lucky us.

"maybe they made it into the tunnel, the one that goes from the hermatage to the factory." I said and Jeremy seemed to consider that. If they did then they were safe, if they didn't they are probably in big trouble.

"Well in that case we'll have to hope they did, There's no signal out there with this blizzard." Astrid said with a worried look in her eyes. We don't know for sure if they're okay. I squeeze her hand and she smiles up at me.

"So how are WE going to get to the factory? Any ideas?" I say but no one says anything.

"Well the one way that's safe is the boiler room tunnel. But the teachers will catch is if we even walk over there." Jeremy says and an idea hits me.

"Maybe we can-" my reply was cut short as Brynga suddenly Waltz over and sat down straight on my lap.

"It's cold, would you hold me Odd?" She asked and I didn't take long to shove her off.

"Buzz off, your starting to get more than obnoxious." I say and Astrid grabs my hand protectively while glaring at Brynga. I laughed and smile at her.

"Fine I will, unless you want my help get to the boiler room." Brynga said and the three of us looked at her in shock. Her sly face annoys me so much, but we do need to get to the boiler room.

"How did you know?" Jeremy asks and Brynga face gets even more annoying.

"Well you were talking so eargently, I wanted to make sure everything was okay, besides I want to make up for messy ing up the supercomputer. That way after it's all over and done there will be no reason to be mad at me anymore." She said her tone smooth and full of fake innocence. I ball my fist and sighed, I guess it's up to Jeremy wether we say yes or not. He was the one who had to fix the computer. Besides we're running out of time.

"Fine, but how do you plan on getting us to the boiler room?" Jeremy ask and Brynga dint answer but stood up and walked over to the sissy. The two of them went to talk to the teachers and we saw our chance. As quiet as we could we slipped unseen out of the basement, with only a few puzzled looks from other students.

As soon as we made. It through the hall and to the boiler room we booked it down the tunnel. We all ran as fast as we could, hoping the others were already at the factory. Before i knew it Astrid, who was running infront of me, started breathing a little too heavily.

"Astrid are you okay?" I asked urgently as we stopped for a moment and she slipped to one knee. As she coughed I put the my hand on her back.

"You don't think she has asthma or anything, do you?" einstein asked and I shook my head. After a few more seconds she recovered and stood up.

"I'm sorry you two, no it's not asthma. I just a have a little cough. I'll be fine let's keep going." She said smiling at me. I checked her forehead to make sure there wasn't a fever. Though the only reason I let her keep going is because of the strong look in her eyes.

When we got out of the tunnel and ran to the computer we weren't surprised to find Aelita and William there.

"Where are Ulrich and Yumi?" Astrid asked out if breath. I grabbed her hand to steady her, she still seemed a little weak.

"Long story, Yumi got caught under a tree that fell. Apparently there was a news guy here today. Besides the point we need to deactivate the tower quick." William said and both he and Aelita looked winded and cold.

"Okay, Astrid, Odd, and Aelita get to the scanners. William don't start with me just stay here in case. Like you said we don't have much time." Jeremy said quickly interrupting Williams protest to not go. He looked a little miffed but he obeyed and walk tot he computer shivering as the rest of us ran for the scanners.

**hey guys! Hope this wait wasn't as long as the last few.. Probably was though... Anyways I'm in the holiday spirit and, even though some of you might not and I don't mean to offend in case or anything, I celebrate Christmas and I want to give you guys some type of gift this holiday season. I'm going to try and upload the next chapter as soon as possible but, knowing myself, I'll probably get sidetracked a lot. So I'm going to dedicate a part or episode( if you haven't noticed I've been putting numbers next to every few chapters and that kinda indicates an episode or a mini plot beginning. I don't know what to call it but basically they are episodes.) to an idea some one gives me. And I know I probably won't get many suggestions but if you don't have an idea you can either private message me or write a review on it, it doesn't matter. But I will pick one randomly, i have methods for randomness, and write about it. I know it's kinda Odd, get it, but if you want to you can. Thank you all for reading and have some happy holidays for whatever you celebrate!**


	18. Code: Dance complications

Astrid's POV

As we landed on lyoko I immediately felt relief as the hint of asthma vanished. I got rid of my asthma a long time ago, why would it come back now? Pushing the thoughts away we all raced on our preferred method of transportation to the activated tower. In the forest section we were going east. I pulled out my bow and kept it handing, I think we our all waiting for xanas minions.

"Jeremy what can we expect to be in our way this time?" Odd asked sarcastically and Jeremy grunted.

" You'll have to find out, this computers not very good in freezing cold conditions. I'll have to work with what I have." Jeremy said and i sighed, hopefully this will be over quickly.

"I wonder what Brynga plans to get in return for helping us." I say absentmindedly trying to get a conversation while speeding toward the tower that was coming in view.

"Why would Brynga need something from us? What happened?" Aelita asked and I shook my head trying to shake the feeling of being annoyed. You brought up Brynga, maybe you should stay off that topic if she's only going to annoy you.

" Nevermind, two blocks up ahead." I say and we immediately we split up. I keep heading straight while Aelita and Odd curve to the sides. I pull back my bow with two arrows notched on it and fire still at top speed. The arrows curve in the air and hit each of the blocks.

"Nice shot!" Aelita says and I smile as we race ahead.

" You didn't even leave one for me, how rude." Odd said playfully and I stick my tongue out at him.

" Don't worry there's more monsters ahead." Jeremy says through the computer. I bit my tongue to stop from groaning, somehow I wanted to get this over with. After all I'll be spending two weeks away from here at that dumb orphanage. I want to make the most out of the time I have, not having it be wasted by Xana!

"Two blocks, one creeper, a mega tank, and the schyphozoa aren't we lucky today?" Odd said sarcastically as the monsters started firing at us. I pulled back my bow and fired, it narrowly missed the mega tank. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Odd shoot a lazer arrow into the creeper.

"Energy field!" Aelita called as she fired and energy feild at the mega tank. I shot a few arrows and the schyphozoa that was approaching Aelita. However instead of hitting it the arrows skimmed past. Giving up on the arrow idea I ran straight for it, preparing the blades on my wrist and boots.

I jumped up into the air and did a mid air roll twisting into the position I needed. Then I slammed down the blade on the tip of my boot into the Xana symbol. As it exploded I twirled again and landed on my feet. That will teach the dumb thing not to bother us anymore... Actually probably not that things just gonna keep coming back isn't it?

I looked over just in time to see a block being destroyed by Odd and Aelita running into the tower. I aimed my bow and shot an arrow into the block.

"Wait Jeremy are we doing a return to the past?" I asked as a thought came I to my head.

"Nope Astrid we'll just leave Yumi under that tree and have the whole city be wondering why there was a blizzard today. Also explain to jym why we left. Did I mention Yumi being stuck under a tree?" Jeremy said sarcastically and I rolled my eyes. I do hope yumi will make it. How long has she been under a tree? However a happy thought rose up in me. We don't have to repay Brynga! Even as I was happy about that worry still washed over me for Yumi. Come on come on, finally I hear jeremy say the words and we are suddenly swept away in a return to the past.

Odd's POV

the point in time we returned to just happened to send be straight into a wall. Chasing after Astrid right after she pulled that prank on us we all were in running positions. I stood up and saw Astrid sprawled on the floor. I ran over to her and help her up.

"You okay?" I asked still worried about the breathing problem. She nodded and smiled at me. Standing up straight there was no trace of her earlier fatique.

"Yep, well once I get away!" She yelled laughing and her hand slipped out of mine as she dashed to the girls bathroom. I half heartedly ran after her but the game was long over, though being freshly covered in perfume and sparkles didn't lower my urge to get them back.

"Come back! We oughta finish preparing for the dance." I called after her but none of the girls left the bathroom. I sighed and smiled while William and Ulrich walked over.

"You know I don't care about the dance any more, why do we keep coming back at the worst times?" Ulrich come plain as he walked over to the bathroom. Even though we knew she was fine we were still worried about Yumi.

After we made sure she was okay we worked on the decorations for the rest of the day. At least most of the day. Soon we were sitting back a searching our master piece for any mistakes. Even though Astrid was fine breathing wise by the time we finished she looked exhausted.

"Astrid... You might want ho consider sleeping if your going to be this tired." Ulrich say teasingly and Astrid stuck her tongue out at him.

"For your information Jeremy said that when regular people return go the past their bogies are set back to the form it was in at the point you return to. This means that since return to the past doesn't work for me, any fatigue i acquire before the return to the past is not removed when we do a return to the past." Astrid said quickly with a few yawns in between.

"Ahem* please transfer." William said and glancing at every one except Aelita, they all looked confused.

"imagine an energy bar in a video game. However much you do it uses up the energy in the energy bar. When we return to the past our energy bar is refilled to however much energy we had then." Aelita staid and Astrid looked up at her great fully. The others nodded there heads in understanding and we got up from our spot.

"Well anyways lets go get dinner. do you know wha we're having today?" I ask and Astrid shrugs. Naturally as we walk our hands connect. Walking peacefully like this is soothing.

"My necklace!" Astrid said making me jump. Brynga was walking towards us with a smug look on her face. Astrid ran forward to meet her before she reached us. I ran up behind her along with the others.

"What this? No this is just a peice of trash I found on the cafeteria floor. It's midly cute but worthless, I'll be throwing it away later." She said in a informative tone. I clentched my fist, thT mist be Astrid's.

"Liar! That's mine! It was on my dresser!" Astrid said, she looked beyond angry but scared too. That necklace must be important to her.

"Hmm, well I found this on the floor. Must not be yours then." Brynga stated and started walking away. Astrid's hand shot out as she grabbed bryngas wrist.

"I don't think so, give it back now." Astrid said quietly her voice filled with dangerous anger.

"Uh oh, you don't want me to make the principal aware of violence from you. Didn't that orphanage say if you didn't stay out of trouble you couldn't go here anymore? Wouldn't want that would we?" Brynga said, seeing she won as Astrid's hand fell slack from her wrist. Brynga walked easily away, making own anger grow deeper. I glanced at he others who looked just as outraged as I was. William nodded at each other and we just started to go after her when Astrid put on hand on my chest.

"Stay here." She said plainly trying to control her anger. "I don't want witnesses. " as she started walking forward everyone rushed to hold her back.

"Whoa, Astrid I don't think that's a good idea!" Aelita said and Astrid muttered something under her breath about about dumb friends that know when your doing something stupid. If the ato ospreys wasnt so tense I would've laughed.

"I think we all know a way to convince her to give that back." Jeremy said, no one questioned why this was so important to her. It's probably a momento of her past. Everyone but Astrid looked at me with a knowing glance. Astrid however sighed and shook her head.

" Don't worry i know a non violent way to get it back." Astrid said calmly now. This time we let her run and catch up with Brynga. They had a small conversation and at the end Brynga coughed up the necklace. It was a red heart the looked to be crudely cut in half. It had chips and rough edges on it and the string itself looked old. No one said anything as she walked back.

"I'm sorry." Astrid said shortly looking at everyone shyly.

"Its no big deal. Not for you anyway. For Brynga we'll never let her live this down." Ulrich said obviously still a little angry.

"Yeah, stealing is going to far." Yumi said and we all nodded.

"By the way what did you say to get it back?" I asked but Astrid just smiled and waved it off.

"It doesn't matter, can we go get food now? I'm starving." Astrid said and I smiled as we went and had, for once, a normal dinner.

Astrid's POV

I woke up in the middle of the night by my own nightmares. Occasionally the dream I had when I was put to sleep by Xana comes back. However after I woke up I could hear Aelita crying out. Immediately I jumped up and ran to her side.

"Aelita wake up, your having a bad dream. It's okay, your fine." I whisper quietly to her as she wakes up. This happens not often but never tells anyone what her nightmares are and I respect that, I just wish I could make them stop.

"Oh! Astrid I'm sorry! Did I wake you again?" Aelita said depressingly.

"No it's okay, my own dreams woke me. But everything's fine now. You can ho back to sleep." I said soothingly and walked back to my bed.

Crawling under the covers my thoughts drifted back to what I was thinking about when I fell asleep. Tomorrow. Even after working so hard to make the dance perfect, I don't think I'll be able to enjoy it. I packed before I went to bed and after thinking it threw there's no way. First I don't even have a dress, second I would literally only be able to go for five minutes if I want to make it to the car picking me up in time, and third.. the promise I made to get back my necklace was that I wouldn't go.

I sighed and turned over in my bed. How will I tell the others? How will I tell Odd? I fell back into a fitful sleep. My dreams matching my feelings. Happy and hopeful until crushed down by something. Why am I so upset? It's just a dance, you've never liked these things before. So why now?

Because. Your finally healing from losing what you had before. Almost, I can almost remember the adventures we went on together. Alex, Jimmy, Gwen, and I. I locked them up in my mind, can I reach them again? In my dream I'm floating in a ball of light, out of it I can the bare scraps of what I can remember. Tears roll down my face as I shove my self out of my dream and into reality.

"Bzzz, Bzzz." I blinked awake as the alarm clock me and Aelita set sprung up.

"shoot." I mutter crossly, where did my sleep go? After ten minutes of pulling ourselves out of bed Aelita and I we headed to the shower rooms.

"I can't wait to be able to sleep in!" Aelita said longingly. I wish! Even during breaks I hardly ever get time to myself. I can forget being able to sleep in! I sighed enviously as we waited in the usual long line for the bathroom. When we were finally finished we went back to the room and chatted.

"Are you excited for tonight?" Aelita asked, now might be a good time to tell her. Or maybe not.

"I'm excited about not having any classes today." I say avoiding the question.

"Yes but what about dancing with Odd?" Aelita said knowingly and I threw my pillow at her.

"If your going to talk like that you should call Yumi over." Even as I said it the blush was creeping around my cheeks.

"Why not?" Aelita asked and I shrugged. Aelita called Yumi and we waited for her to come.

"Well what about Jeremy eh? Does he even know how to dance?" I say teasingly. Aelita takes the pillow I threw at her and throws it back. I catch it in mid air just as yumi walks in.

"Sup." I say with me Aelita frozen in our positions. Me holding the pillow and Aelita in mid swing with another. We all burst out laughing.

"So I heard we were talking about the dance huh?" Yumi said after closing the door and sitting down.

"Astrid was just about to tell us how excited she was to be dancing with Odd." Aelita said teasingly. I threw my pillow at her again and rolled my eyes.

Before I could stop my self the words came rolling out of my mouth. "I'm not going to the dance anyway." Aelita and Yumi immediately sat up straight from their sitting positions. Shoot, why couldn't I keep my mouth shut? I cursed lightly under my breath and smiled anxiously at them.

"What do you mean your not going!? We've all been working hard for this!" Yumi said shocked and Aelita gave me a concerned look.

"Look, it's not my choice anyway. I have a doctors appointment tonight.." I said weakly trying to come up with a solid excuse. What does it matter anymore? I have to go tonight anyway. I stand up and pull my suitcase out from under my bed. "Also I have to go home for winter break tonight. You have to understand it's not my decision.." I Say and sit back down.

"What about Odd, I'm sure he was looking forward to it too. When are you going to tell him?" Aelita asked and her question hit me hard. I sighed a felled back on my bed staring at the ceiling.

"I was hoping I wouldn't have to... somehow.." even as the words come out of my mouth I know they sound pathetic.

"I know!" Yumi suddenly exclaims excitedly. I sit back up a look at her. "Why don't you and Odd go on a date now? That way you can make up for not being able to go tonight!"

"Maybe.." I said and then smiled as I considered the thought.

**I'm sorry for posting late guys! I meant to post another chapter in christmas but...I hit sidetracked.. Any way I hope you like this chapture that we started off with the begining of some needed action then brought in some drama and topped off with a bit of romance. Thank you guys for staying with me and I hope everyone had a good holiday. One thing I must ask you guys is I'm thinking that the holiday special gift I was planning could possibly be this. A "movie" or one special story with done type of twist that foes not effect the original story. I'm think a crossover movie? Do you like it? Any way please give me suggestions on what to cross it over with. I'll start working on it as soon as I figure out which one. Thanks again guys!**


	19. Code: importance to me

Astrid's POV

We walked down the crowded street holding hands. Trying are best not get separated we held tight and when people finally got rude enough and the street was too crowded to bear we dashed into a quaint but cute little cafe.

"You wanna get something here? We could always visit that crowded one down the street?" Odd asked sarcastically and I laughed. The cafe we had entered was fairly full but everyone was quiet and to themselves. The ones that were talking were whispering.

"What do you want to get? They have banana croissants." I said and we considered what we would get for a moment. Earlier this morning even though Odd wasn't happy about the dance being down he said he didn't blame me. We decided to skip the breakfast at school and get something like this. Then we would walk around, maybe find something to do, then get lunch somewhere and go back to the school.

"Hmm, I know one thing for sure that your going to want the Chocolate Pyramid right?" Odd asked and I laughed at how right he was.

"Absolutely, that thing sounds heavenly. However the Strawberry Shortcake Pyramid looks good too." I say for once debating between chocolate or something else. My favorite thing for breakfast is chocolate, no matter what.

"How about I get a Banana Croissant, you get the Chocolate Pyramid, we split the Strawberry Shortcake, and a coffee for each?" Odd said sealing up the deal. We ordered and sat down to wait for it to be made.

We sat there pleasantly talking for the wait. Eventually I was smiling so much it hurt. Thats what seems to happen every time I'm around Odd. He can make a day I was earlier dreading become something I would've looked forward to for weeks. When the food came to us we politely thanked them and dug in. The Chocolate Pyramid was chocolate sponge cake in the shape of spheres stacked in a pyramid form. The spheres were half chocolate and half vanilla, kept together by the perfect type of icing in the middle. The plate had little tooth picks on the side that you stick in the cake to eat with.

"That looks more like a dessert than a breakfast." Odd said teasingly and I smiled. Grabbing a stick I stuck it in one and popped it in his mouth. His eyes widened as he tasted it.

"Good isn't it? I think I'll take some back for the others." I Said and Odd nodded. After we finished both our breakfast we decided to take the Strawberry Shortcake and a fresh Chocolate one back to share with the others.

"well at least the streets are less crowded. Where do you want to go now? Odd asked and I thought about it for a minute as we walked around. I wrapped my arm around Odd's and looked around at all the intriguing shops. A small shop for flowers and perfume stood on the right and a sports shop stood on the left. As we walked closer to the sports shop I could see a sparkling pair of electric blue dollar skates in the window? Curiously I crossed the street and walked over to look at it.

"roller skates huh? Well maybe you'd be good at it, your amazing at ice skating." Odd said encourangingly. even though they have the same premise they are different sports with each their own similarities and differences.

"You guessed it, I used to love roller skating too." Some hard fell in my stomached as I said that. Looking back on everything I used to love to do. Everything I unwillingly gave up. Pushing the thoughts aside we entered the sports shop. The warm air flowed through to us as we walked in, chasing off the frigid outside winds. I turned headed to look at the petite roller skate section. The other people in the store were browsing the largersports that were featured in the shop.

"Yikes thats a bit pricey, oh well. Maybe if I save up a bit." I mumbled to myself and even though odd heard he didn't say anything. I turned to him and added. "Is there anything you want to look at?"

"Not really. But if you want we could go watch that new movie. Im to full to eat popcorn or anything but if you want some I can pay." Odd offer and I quickly declined.

"No no, I mean a movie sounds great but I'm full too. Besides I wouldn't take money from you." I say quickly and Odd leans in next to my ear.

"Dont ever worry about something like money. Not all of the money in the world could be worth putting a frown on your face." He whispered into my ear and I felt the blush creep up on my face. I quickly extinguished it and smile up at him. Before had had a lengthy discussion about money. I'd rather not go back into it though. We dropped the subject and headed over to the movie theater.

After we watched the movie about particularly angry mice and a princess, I could barely keep up with it myself, we headed to a local park and sat down at a bench.

"That was an interesting movie." I said as we sat down. Odd laughed and shook his head.

" Interesting? How about freaking confusing? How did the mice king or something die again?" He asked smiling, this was about the fifth time Ive had to explain it to him.

"The king, the human one, kicked him off a bridge into the water." I said while retying my shoe laces.

" But the mouse could swim..." Odd said confused and I sighed.

"Yes but the water was very poisoness."

"Wait but how was it poisoned I thought it was supposed to be the cleanses river in the mice world?"

"Odd for the last time, the humans poisoned it. That's the whole point of the movie."

"What do you mean thats the whole point of the movie?"

"The mice were angry at the humans because they were poisoning all the rivers and the atmosphere."

"But-"

"Odd if you really want to know watch the movie again!"

"Fine! Come on I'm dragging you back!" He said dragging mw on my feet. Laughing histerically we ended up falling on the ground and rolling down a big hill.

"Odd Delarobia! Do you have my idea how long it took me to do my hair!" I said laughing I chased him around a swing set at the bottom of the hill. Both of us were completely coated in grass stains, dirt, and mud.

"It's in a pony tail! How hard is that?" He said laughing jokingly.

"That's not the point. Aside from that these jeans are ruined! I'm not even going to mention my jacket!"

"You just mentioned it!"

I rolled my eyes and instinctively felt around my neck for both necklaces I kept there. I started to panic as I realized only one was there. "Odd! I don't have the necklace you gave me!" I said panicking. I started searching around on the grass around my feet and then raced back to the hill. Odd was on my tail hurrying to help look.

After looking for about a half hour he finally came up to me and said "I don't think it's here. But it's okay, you still have the other one right?" trying to comfort me. He has no idea how important it is to me.

"Odd it's not that. That necklace... It's very important to me... I'm sorry I lost it." I apologized to myself as much as I apologize to him.

"It's okay, you dont have to apologize for something like that." He whispered with his mouth close to my ear. I turned around hugged him, it probably was a strange sight, and a bit uncomfortable as we were both kinda slanted. Just as we straightened up into a hug soft snow started to fall from the ground again.

I thought about the life I have now. Compairing it to the life I had before. I thought about the boy I was hugging right now, the love I so soon felt for him when I arrive here, and the deep love I felt for him now. Nothing major had really happened between us, we just clicked. I mean yes we had Xana to deal with but, in the life I lived before, I know something big happened. Even if I can't grasp it in my memories I can still feel it, I know it's there. However when I think back to before or just as I came to kadic, I would have don anything to not have gone through that coma... to have a second chance at _my _life. when I think about it now though... I don't think I could give up my life _right now_.

I know what Odd and I will see when we get back to kadic. Friends that will support us and be supported by us. Friends that will laugh and joke, but even if they take a joke too far, they never really mean to hurt you. A so what, I have to go back to the orphanage tonight? The sooner I go the sooner I'll be back at kadic. Those are the thoughts that spun throughout my head as our lips touched. The snow swirling around us in a gentle spin, not any snow storm. We stay like that, embrace in one another, for a few minutes. Until silently, slowly in agreement, we headed back up the large hill covered in dust.

**Hey guys! Im really sorry this is a short chapter but I wanted to get one out to you. Long story short I've been on vacation during my winter break so during the LONG car ride down to florida I didn't have wifi so I couldnt write. Then I refused to use electronic devices while in Disney land. So that leads to not being able to write for a while. This chapter, I'll admit, had no planning WHAT SO EVER. I kinda just went with it this time so it might not be my best work. Anyway I'm working on some new stories too but I promise I won't stop doing this one. I hope you guys had a great break or whatever you did for the holidays... Or are doing.. Either have a good day and I'll try to post again soon!**


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